


Jurassic Park

by Ashton210



Series: RWBY STYLE [1]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, RWBY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:01:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24266296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashton210/pseuds/Ashton210
Summary: Jurassic Park but with rwby characters.
Series: RWBY STYLE [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751530





	1. 1

Filled with the sounds of the jungle as the beginning credits began to roll along with the title.

The screen showed a thicket of jungle which was shaking, showing signs of movement within. Occasionally, it would show a Faunus worker wearing an orange hardhat. Qrow stood amongst the group of Faunus workers- all holding weapons that looked obviously non-lethal- holding his Harbinger fully deployed in scythe mode.

Eventually, a forklift appeared from within the jungle carrying a small shipping container with what appeared to be ventilation holes cut into it.

The forklift brought the container over to a loading dock next to some sort of holding pen and lowered it to the ground before quickly back off. Text appeared onscreen, reading "Isla Nublar, 120 miles west of Menagerie."

Qrow approached the box before turning back to the workers, "Okay, pushing team, move in there. I want tasers on full charge." He ordered.

Whatever was in the container screeched and caused the container to shake, scaring the crew and making them back away in fright.

"Steady!" Qrow called out calmly, "Go on. Step back in."

More workers moved to help their co-workers, working to find purchase on the container without risk to themselves. "And push." The container moved until the end facing the holding pen was flush with the pen. "Locked. Loading team step away." The workers moved away from the container quickly, while another Faunus with lion ears climbed on top. "Geoffery, raise the gate." The man, Geoffery, apparently, nodded and grasped the bar in front of him and began to lift it.

When it had reached Geoffery's waist, the creature in the container shrieked and ran. However, instead to propelling itself forward, the container moved backwards. Geoffery lost his balance and fell off to the side of the container. Whatever was inside grabbed him by the legs and tried to drag him in, but he caught the side of the container, screaming in pain.

"Block the opening!" Qrow yelled as he moved to help Geoffery, tossing away his scythe "Don't let her get out!" The workers who were armed surged forward and began to fire their weapons like mad. Geoffery tried to grab one of the ladder rungs on the side, but was pulled back and lifted bodily off the ground, causing Qrow to stumble. He rose to his feet and tried to wrap his arms about the man's chest. The creature inside shrieked in pain from the many weapons firing on it.

"Work her back!" Qrow yelled with a growl, struggling to save the man's life. He could feel Geoffery slipping from his grip. "Shoot her!" he ordered. He was only holding Geoffery's arm now. "Shoot her!" he cried again. Gunshots rang out, but it was too late. Geoffery slipped through his arm and was lost.

The scene transitioned to a man with snow white hair and blue eyes, dressed in an all-white business suit and holding a briefcase, standing on a wooden raft being pulled towards shore by a rope. He nervously waved to the men onshore. The text onscreen read "Mano de Dios Amber Mine, Vacuo."

A rather large, light skinned man with a rather impressive moustache sat with three more dark-skinned, Faunus men, turning a hat in his hands.

"I really dislike this kid." He said quietly so that only the workers could hear him. They chuckled, obviously agreeing with him.

"Peter." Whitley said, offering him his hand, half in greeting, half in request for help off the raft.

"Hello, Mr Schnee. Welcome." Port said with easy friendliness, taking his hand and leading him towards the mine.

"What's this I hear at the airport? Ozpin's not even here?" Whitley said with slight incredulity, getting right to business.

"He sends his apologies." Port replied, already tired of the young man.

"We are facing a twenty million lien lawsuit by the family of that worker, and you're telling me Ozpin can't even bother to see me?"

"He had to leave early. He wanted to be with his daughter, she's getting a divorce."

"Well, I understand that, but we've been advised to deal with the situation now. The insurance company-" his last word trailed off as he slipped on a rock.

"You okay?" Port asked, helping him up.

Whitley dusted himself off and continued, "The underwriters feel that the accident has raised some very serious safety questions about the park. That makes the investors very, very anxious. I had to promise to conduct a very thorough, on-site inspection."

Port stopped and turned to face Whitley, "Ozpin hates inspections. They slow everything down."

"Peter, they'll pull the funding. That'll slow him down even more." Whitley said as a rat Faunus came running up to Port and told him something in a language none of the viewers understood, Faunus aside. Port replied in the same language, and followed the man with an excited look on his face.

They stepped into the mine proper, which was filled with different kinds of Faunus in lamp-helmets digging away at the rock. Whitley, being inexperienced with such things, immediately rammed his head into a support beam. "Ow!"

"Watch your head." Port said after the fact.

Ignoring his momentary embarrassment, Whitley continued. "If two experts sign off on the island, the insurance guys will back off. I've already got Nora Valkyrie, but they think she's too trendy. They want Jaune Arc."

"Arc?" Port asked with a laugh, "You'll never get him out of Vale." He took something that a worker gave him and called for his workers to come have a look.

"Why not?" Whitley asked, confused.

"Because Arc's like me. He's a digger." Port said as he gazed at the stone in his hand. It was a chunk of amber with a mosquito fossilized inside.


	2. 2

The scene changed to a person- no one could tell if it was human or Faunus- brushing loose dirt off a dark grey, almost rock-like, bone. More people could be seen brushing off more bones. Another was hand-scooping dirt out of the eye socket of a skull. A top-down view showed at least six people working on a complete skeleton, trying to excavate it. More text appeared, reading "Badlands, near Mountain Glen, Vale".

A woman with shoulder-length black hair with red tips came up a hill towards the skeleton. "Dr. Arc, Dr. Nikos, we're ready to try again." She said.

Jaune stood up, his messy blonde hair mostly hidden under a tan, wide-rimmed fedora. He wore a red flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows, khaki pants and aviator sunglasses.

"I hate computers," he said to himself.

A woman with long red hair stood up next to him wearing a blue shirt rolled up to her elbows and tied around her midriff, and blue jeans. She also wore a tan hat and sunglasses, just different styles. She looked at Jaune with a grin and put an orange-red bandana around his neck.

"The feeling's mutual," she said with a chuckle. They put their arms around each other and walked down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill, a pair of young men put a black shotgun shell into the top of a strange looking machine with wheels. They locked it into place and stood on it. One of the men pulled the pin on the shell and the machine shook as it fired the shell into the ground, creating a cloud of dust. While the men ejected the shell and reset the machine, a crowd gathered around a tent where a computer station was set up. Jaune and Pyrrha were at the front, looking at the screen.

"How long does this usually take?" Pyrrha asked the young man operating the computer.

"It should bring an immediate return," the man said as he typed on the keyboard and tuned on the screen, "Shoot the radar into the ground, and the bone bounces the image back." He started talking to himself as he worked. The screen started out blurry, but as the man continued typing, it became clearer, showing a complete skeleton, like what the team on the hill was already digging up. "This new program is incredible. Few more years development and we won't even have to dig anymore."

"Where's the fun it that?" Jaune asked, making Pyrrha laugh.

"It's a little distorted, but I don't think it's the computer." The young tech said.

"It's not," Pyrrha said, approaching the computer, "Post-mortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments. Velociraptor?"

"Yeah. Good shape, too." Jaune said, taking a closer look at the computer screen and pointing at it, "It's five, six feet high. I'm guessing nine feet long. Look at the extraord- "Jaune stopped as the screen frizzed out when he accidentally touched it.

"What'd you do?" the tech asked as he worked to fix the image.

"He touched it," Pyrrha said with a laugh, "Dr. Arc's not machine-compatible."

"Hell, they've got it in for me," he said, "and look at the half-moon shaped bones in the wrists. It's no wonder these guys learned how to fly." The people around him began to chuckle. "No, seriously." He said, turning to face them, "Alright, well, maybe dinosaurs have more in common with present-day birds, than they do with reptiles. Look at the pubic bone; turned backwards, just like a bird. Look at the vertebrae; full of air sacks and hollows, just like a bird. And even the word 'raptor' means 'bird of prey.'

"That doesn't look very scary." Said a voice from behind. Everyone turned to see a short, chubby boy in a t-shirt, shorts and a ball cap speaking, "Looks more like a six-foot turkey." This elicited even more chuckling from the crowd.

"A turkey, huh?" Jaune said, putting his hands on his hips and giving the kid his full attention.

"Oh, no," Pyrrha groaned, "Here we go."

"Okay, try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period. You see this six-foot turkey as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement, like T. Rex. He'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes, not from the front, but from the side." He made a whistle as he brought a finger from each hand in front of the kid, "From the other two raptors you didn't even know were there. Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see. He uses coordinated attack patterns, and he is out in force today." He circled around the back of the kid and brought out something from his back pocket. "And he slashes at you with this." He showed it to the kid, it was a long, curved fossil claw that he held in one hand between his index and middle fingers. "A six-inch, retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular, like a lion, see. No, no. He slashes at you here," he cut across the boy's chest with the claw, "Or here," he cut along one of his thighs, "Or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you. So, you know, try to show a little respect?"

"Okay," the boy whispered. Jaune started back up the hill to the main dig with a small smile on his face. Pyrrha soon caught up with him.

"Hey Jaune, if you wanted to scare the kid, you coulda pulled Crocea Mors on him, ya know." She said.

"Yeah, I know. Kids," he said, exasperated, "You wanna have one of those?"

"I don't want that kid, but a breed of child Dr. Arc could be intriguing. I mean, what's so wrong with kids?"

"Ah, Pyrrha, look, they're messy, they're noisy, they're expensive."

"Cheap, cheap."

"They smell."

"They do not smell!"

"Some of them smell. Babies smell!"

"Give me a break." Pyrrha said laughing.

Suddenly, a Bullhead came over the rise and began to set down near the camp, throwing up dust and dirt, and endangering the bones. Jaune and Pyrrha ran back down the hill to preserve their hard work, yelling at their students to cover it up. Pyrrha moved to help them lash a tarp over the bones before they could become to covered up again with dirt and dust, while Jaune ran up to Bullhead's cockpit and began yelling at the pilot.

"Just cut it, will ya? Shut it down." He yelled, but the pilot began pointing to the trailer, trying to tell him something. Giving up, Jaune ran to the trailer and stormed in. inside was an older man in all white clothes with messy grey hair, black glasses, and a cane rummaging through the refrigerator.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in here?" he said, exasperated. There was a loud pop as the man opened a fresh bottle of champagne as he turned around. "Hey, we were saving that!"

"For today, I guarantee it." he said kindly.

"Who in Oum's name do you think you are?" Jaune said, approaching the man and pointing at his chest.

"Call me Ozpin, and I'm delighted to meet you finally in person, Dr. Arc," he said, taking Jaune's finger and shaking it.

He let go and blew the dust off his hand, "So, I can see that my fifty-thousand a year has been well-spent." Jaune looked as though he had just met the most important person in the known world.

Pyrrha stormed in next, angry and covered in dust, "Okay, who's the jerk?"

"This is our paleobotanist, Dr. Nikos," Jaune said politely, turning a complete 180 from his earlier tone, "Uh, Pyrrha this is Mr. Ozpin."

Pyrrha's face went beet red with embarrassment as Ozpin came over to shake her hand, "I'm sorry about the dramatic entrance Dr. Nikos, but..."

"Did I say jerk?" she said, trying to make a joke.

"...we're in a wee bit of a hurry. Will you have a drink? We won't let it get warm. Sit down, sit down."

Pyrrha, flustered, tried to make the countertop presentable while looking for a few clean glasses. "Well, uh..."

"I'll just get a glass or two- "

"Well, let me have this- "

"No, no, no, I can manage this. I know my way around the kitchen." He shooed Pyrrha off as he grabbed a glass from the sink and began cleaning it with a dish cloth. "Now, I'll get right to the point; I like you, both of you. I can tell instantly about people, it's a gift." Jaune and Pyrrha sat down on one side of the kitchen with Ozpin leaning against the countertop, pausing while he cleaned the glass. "I own an island, off the coast of Menagerie. I've leased it from the government and I've spent the last five years setting up a kind of biological preserve. Really spectacular. Spared no expense. Make the one I've got down in Vacuo look like a petting zoo. And there's no doubt, our attractions will drive kids out of their minds."

"And what are those?" Jaune asked.

"Small versions of adults, honey." Pyrrha answered back sarcastically.

"And not just kids, everyone," Ozpin said as he began on another glass, "We're going to open next year, that is if the lawyers don't kill me first. I don't care for lawyers, do you?"

"We, uh, don't really know any." Jaune and Pyrrha answered nervously.

"Well, I do I'm afraid. There's a particular pebble in my shoe that represents my investors. Says they insist on outside opinions."

"What kind of opinions" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, your kind, not to put too fine a point on it." Ozpin said as started filling the glasses with champagne, "I mean, let's face it, in your particular fields, you're the top minds. And if I could just persuade you to sign off on the park, you know, give it your endorsement, maybe even pen a wee testimonial, then I could get back on schedule."

"Why would they care what we think?" Pyrrha asked.

"What kind of park is this?" Jaune added.

Ozpin looked at Jaune with an amused grin. He handed him a glass and said, "It's right up your alley. I tell you what, why don't you come down, just the pair of you, for the weekend?" he handed Pyrrha the other glass and sat on the kitchen countertop, allowing his legs to dangle over the side, "I'd love to have an opinion of a paleobotanist as well. I've got a Bullhead standing by at Beacon."

"Look, I'm sorry," Jaune said, standing up, "This just isn't possible. We just dug up a new skeleton... "

"I could fully compensate you by fully funding your dig..."

"And this is a very unusual time."

"For a further three years."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and knew what that offer meant to them and the crew outside. The clinked their glasses together and started to laugh.

"Where's the airship?" Pyrrha said for Jaune who was lost for words. He clinked glasses with Ozpin and hugged Pyrrha, laughing hysterically with her.

The next scene showed a dirty sedan pulled up to a small market and dropped off a man in a red polo shirt and blue jeans, carrying a leather bag and a beige backpack. His garb was unfamiliar, and his sunglasses obscured his face, but nobody could mistake the flaming orange hair and black bowler hat of Roman Torchwick. He walked into the market without paying his cabby as text appeared that read "Kuo Kuana, Menagerie".

As the movie resumed, Roman walked to a restaurant looking for his contact. His contact turned out to be none other than Mercury Black, who was in the middle of a meal when he noticed the flame-haired man.

"Yo, Torchwick!" he said, waving him over.

Torchwick walked over, took a seat, placing his pack to one side and the bag on the other and said, "You shouldn't use my name."

"Torchwick. Torchwick! We've got Torchwick here!"

Mercury said, annoying the man, "Ya see? Nobody cares. Nice hat. If you really wanna blend in, ditch the bowler."

Torchwick grabbed the bag and handed it to Mercury. "750,000 lien. On delivery, 50,000 more for each viable embryo. That's 1.5 million if you get all 15 species off the island." Mercury started laughing with giddiness.

"Oh, I'll get 'em all." Mercury said.

"Remember, viable embryos. They're no use to us if they don't survive."

"How am I supposed to transport them?"

Torchwick reached into his backpack and pulled out a can of shaving cream. "The bottom screws open. It's cooled and compartmentalized inside. Customs can even check it if they want to." He screwed the top back on.

"That's great, lemme see." Mercury took the can and poured a small amount of cream onto his hand.

"There's enough coolant inside for thirty-six hours."

"No menthol?" Mercury joked.

"The embryos have to be back in Kuo Kuana by then."

Mercury looked at Torchwick seriously as he wiped off his hand, "That's up to your guy on the boat. 7 o' clock tomorrow night on the East Dock. Make sure he gets it right."

"How are you planning to beat security?" Torchwick asked nervously.

"Oh, I've got an 18-minute window. Eighteen minutes and your client catches up on 10 years of research." A server came up to the table and handed them the check. Mercury looked at Torchwick questioningly, "Don't get cheap on me, Torchwick. That was Ozpin's mistake." He said as Torchwick examined the bill.


	3. 3

A small transport Bullhead flew over the ocean. Inside were five individuals. On one side sat Ozpin, who was still in his all-white clothes and held his cane. Next to him sat Pyrrha who had changed into a clean pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, shorts that showed off her long legs, and boots. She leaned against Jaune, in his blue shirt and khaki pants, who was messing with his fossil raptor claw. Across from them sat Whitley. The top of his outfit was pure business, white shirt, tie, grey blazer, but instead of pants, he decided on a pair of grey shorts and he was holding an off-white hat. Next to him sat the most unexpected person of all.

"NORA?!" everyone exclaimed.

Nora's get-up was almost diametrically opposite to what she normally wore; a black button-up shirt that showed a tasteful amount of cleavage, a black leather jacket, black slacks, black dress shoes, even dark glasses. From her neck hung a gold necklace that held a pendant of her personal emblem, the lightning hammer. She decided to break the silence.

"So, you two dig up dinosaurs?" she asked.

Pyrrha chuckled, "Well..."

"We try to," Jaune finished. Nora started laughing a bit at that.

"You'll have to get used to Dr. Valkyrie. She suffers from a deplorable excess of personality, especially for a mathematician."

"Chaotician, actually," Nora corrected as she put a piece of gum in her mouth and started to chew, "Oz here doesn't subscribe to chaos, particularly what it has to say about his little science project."

"Codswallop. Nora, you've never been able to sufficiently explain your concerns..."

"Oh, Oz, don't. because of the behavior of the system in phase space?"

"A load, if I may say so, of fashionable number crunching."

"Dr. Nikos, Dr. Arc, you've heard of Chaos Theory?" she asked.

"No." Pyrrha answered.

"No? Non-linear equations?" Pyrrha shook her head, "Strange attractors?" More silence, "Dr. Nikos, I refuse to believe that you aren't familiar with the concept of attraction." Pyrrha turned her head to hide her blush.

Ozpin turned to Whitley, and said, "I bring the scientists, you bring a rock star," then he looked out the window, and pointed, "There it is."

The Bullhead began its' approach, heading for an opening in the cliffs. The opening became a full canyon, heavily forested. The transport continued through the canyon until it reached a landing pad near a waterfall and a small pond.

As the Bullhead hovered, Ozpin spoke, "Bad wind shears. We have to drop pretty fast. So, hang on, because it can be just a little thrilling." Suddenly, the Bullhead lurched downward. All the passengers, besides Ozpin, almost flew out of their seats. Ozpin chuckled and looked at the couple. "Yahoo." He deadpanned. Whitley laughed politely, while hurrying to put his seat belt on. Nora was calm, and coolly put hers on. Pyrrha did the same, but Jaune wasn't as lucky, since he somehow managed to grab two female buckles. A small argument ensued as Jaune struggled to secure himself. Ozpin tried to help by throwing out instructions, "You need that piece over here, and that piece... well, we'll have landed by the time you get it right." Forgoing everything else, Jaune just decided to side with practicality by tying both ends tightly about his waist. He didn't care much if he looked stupid, so long as it worked, which it did.

The Bullhead finally landed. Nearby waited a pair of red and tan jeeps with numbers on the side. A man ran up to the transport and opened up the door for them. Ozpin went out first to admire the scenery, followed by Whitley, who immediately hurried for a car. Pyrrha and Jaune came next, with Nora bringing up the rear, mainly so she could admire Pyrrha's.

As the Bullhead pulled away, the jeeps, with Nora, Jaune, and Pyrrha in the lead one, and Ozpin and Whitley in the rear one, traveled down a dirt road and through a gateway in a fence that had to be almost twenty feet high. As they passed through, workers closed the gates. On the door was a sign that read, "Danger, 10,000 Volts."

In the rear jeep, Whitley and Ozpin were in a heavy conversation, almost an interrogation.

"The full fifty miles of perimeter fence are in place?" Whitley asked.

"And the concrete moats, and the motion sensor tracking system. Whitley, dear boy, relax. Try and enjoy yourself." Ozpin said back in exasperation.

"Let's get something straight, Oz. This isn't a weekend excursion. This is a serious investigation of the stability of the island. Your investors, whom I represent, are deeply concerned. Forty-eight hours from now, if they're not convinced," he pointed at the lead car, "I'm not convinced. I'll shut you down, Oz."

Ozpin smiled and said, "In forty-eight hours, I'll be accepting your apologies."

The jeeps pulled to a stop atop a grassy hill somewhere on the island. Pyrrha was busy examining a plant she had found, talking to herself.

"This shouldn't be here," she said. Jaune looked off to the side, seeing something off screen that rendered him speechless. He stood up in his seat and took off his sunglasses to get a better look, mouth open in shock. "Jaune, this species of Veriforman's been extinct since the Cretaceous Period. I mean, this thing- what? What?" she said as Jaune reached down, grabbed the top of her head and turned to face the same direction as him. She saw it and she too stood in her seat.

Walking across the plain, not twenty feet from the cars, was a huge creature. It looked similar to a giraffe with it's long neck, stocky body, and long legs. Ruby recognized it immediately. A brachiosaur. It walked past the cars, bellowing as it passed, and up to a tall tree and began eating. Jaune and Pyrrha exited their car and walked up to it.

"It's- it's a dinosaur," was all Jaune could muster.

Pyrrha was no better, barely managing an "uh-huh."

Ozpin walked past the lead car towards Jaune and Pyrrha, chuckling. Nora remained in the car, no less astonished. "You did it," she whispered, "You crazy son of a bitch, you did it." the driver overheard and turned to look at her.

Jaune and Pyrrha walked closer, making observations all the way, "We could tear up the rule book on cold-bloodedness," he said, "It doesn't apply. They're totally wrong. This is a warm-blooded creature."

"This thing doesn't live in a swamp."

"This thing's got a, what? 25, 27-foot neck?" Jaune asked, briefly turning to look at Ozpin then back up at the dinosaur.

"Brachiosaur? Thirty." Ozpin corrected.

"Right."

The brachiosaur let out a short bellow before it suddenly reared-up on its hind legs and reached for a clump of branches higher-up in the tree, towards the top. It grabbed them in its mouth, pulled until they all snapped off, and fell back down on all fours, causing the ground to shake.

"We're gonna make a fortune with this place," Whitley said to himself.

"How fast are they?" Jaune asked Ozpin.

"Well, we clocked the T-Rex at 32 miles an hour," Ozpin replied.

"T-t. Rex?" Pyrrha asked, amazed, "Your said you got a T. Rex?"

"Uh-huh."

Jaune grabbed Ozpin by the shoulder, "Say again."

"Heh, we have a T. Rex."

Jaune didn't feel so good. He felt light-headed and was losing his balance. Felt like he was gonna hurl. He tried to stay vertical, putting his feet shoulder-width apart and putting his hands on his knees, but he eventually fell on his butt.

"Put your head between your legs," Pyrrha said.

"Dr. Arc," Ozpin said with a chuckle as he walked past them to look at the valley the hill overlooked, "My dear Dr. Nikos, welcome to Jurassic Park." Jaune turned and beheld an even grander sight; a pair of Brachiosaurs emerged from a lake down in the valley, while a small group of Parasauralophus were drinking from the lake.

"They're moving in herds. They do move in herds," he said to Pyrrha. Ozpin knelt next to the pair. "How'd you do this?" Jaune asked him.

"I'll show you." He said quietly.


	4. 4

The jeeps pulled out of the jungle and up to a semi-circular grey building with three cone-shaped rooves made of either wood or straw. They unloaded and were guided up the steps and through the large double doors by Ozpin. Inside was a large lobby that contained complete skeletons of a T. Rex attacking a Brontosaurus, surrounded by a winding staircase that led to a second-floor balcony. From the ceiling hung a banner that said, "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth."

"Good day," Ozpin said as he led them into the lobby and up the stairs, "Now, the most advanced amusement park in the entire world, incorporating all the latest technologies. And I'm not just talking about rides, you know. Everybody has rides. No, we've made living biological attractions so astounding that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet."

"So what're you thinking?" Pyrrha asked Jaune.

"We're out of a job," Jaune deadpanned.

"Don't you mean 'extinct'?" Nora said with a shit-eating grin.

They entered what appeared to be a movie theater of some kind. Jaune, Nora and Pyrrha sat in the front row, while Ozpin directed Whitley to sit a few rows behind them.

"Ah, here he comes," Ozpin said as an image of him in a dark business suit walked on screen, "Oh, well, here I come."

"Hello, heh heh, hello," the on-screen Ozpin said.

"Say hello, say hello," the off-screen Ozpin encouraged. The doctors just waved.

"Hello, Oz," On-screen Oz said.

"Oh, that's right. I have lines," Off-screen Oz remember. He reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small stack of notecards.

"Oh, well, fine. Fine, I guess. But, how did I get here?" On-screen Oz said.

"Well, let me show you," Off-screen Oz said as he found his place, "But first, I'm going to need a drop of blood. Your blood."

"Oh, right," On-screen Oz said nervously as he held a finger out. Off-screen Oz made a jabbing motion at his counterparts' finger. The on-screen version immediately pulled his finger back following a cartoonish noise, "Oz, that hurt."

"Relax, Oz. it's all a part of the miracle of cloning."

Suddenly, a second Ozpin stepped out from behind the one on screen. They greeted each other as another one stepped out. As this continued, and Off-screen Oz took a seat next to Whitley, Nora, Jaune and Pyrrha began talking amongst themselves.

"Cloned from what?" Jaune asked, "Loy extractions never recreated an intact DNA strand."

"Not without massive sequence gaps." Nora added.

"Paleo-DNA from what source?" Pyrrha mused, "Where do you get 100-million-year-old dinosaur blood?" Ozpin hushed them as the movie continued. On-screen Oz- the original one- stared at the pricked finger as a cartoonish spiral moved up out of his finger and behind his head. A vaguely anthropomorphic cartoon DNA strand tapped him on his right shoulder before zooming back to his left.

"What? What?" On-screen Oz spotted the cartoon and said, "Oh, Mr. DNA, where did you come from?"

"From your blood," he responded, his voice heavily accented, "Just one drop of your blood contains billions of strands of DNA, the building blocks of life," the screen switched to that of a blueprint, "A DNA strand, like me, is blueprint for building a living thing," his form shifted into a white, dashed line outline of a Brachiosaurus, "And sometimes, animals that went extinct millions of years ago, like dinosaurs, left their blueprints behind for us to find. We just had to know where to look."

A cartoon mosquito was shown on a grey, scaly background as Mr. DNA continued, "A hundred million years ago, there were mosquitos, just like today. And, just like today, they fed on the blood of animals. Even dinosaurs," a real life image of a mosquito being trapped in sap was shown, "Sometimes, after biting a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on the branch of a tree and get stuck in the sap," another cartoon of a pair of men digging to recover a chunk of amber appeared, "After a long time, the tree sap would get hard, and become fossilized, just like a dinosaur bone, preserving the mosquito inside," an image of a man carefully drilling into a chunk of amber appeared, "This fossilized tree sap, which we call amber, waited for millions of years with the mosquito inside until Jurassic Park scientists came along," having drilled a hole into the amber, the scientist stuck a needle it, "Using sophisticated techniques, they extract the preserved blood for the mosquito and bingo: dino DNA."

Jaune, at this point, was leaning against a hand rail in front of him, drinking it in. Nora, having become more interested leaned forward as the explanation continued, "A full DNA strand contains three billions genetic codes," Mr. DNA appeared on an orange background with complicated black text zooming across the screen, "If we looked at screens like these," he indicated the text behind him, "Once a second, for eight hours a day, it'd take two years to look at the entire DNA strand. It's that long. Since it's so old-" he was hit by a zooming block of text and taken with it. He quickly reformed and continued, completely unfazed, "It's full of holes. Now that's where our geneticists take over."

The screen showed a laboratory full of computers and workers, "Thinking machine super computers and gene sequencers break down the strand in minutes, and virtual reality displays shows our geneticists the gap in the DNA sequence. We use the complete DNA of a frog to fill the holes and complete the code. And now, we can create a baby dinosaur," The screen showed a cartoon egg hatch, revealing Mr. DNA as he morphed into a fully-grown sauropod. Music began playing that was a bit too immature.

"This score is only temporary," Ozpin explained, "It all has very dramatic music, of course. A whole march or something. It hasn't been written yet. Then of course, the tour moves on." He pushed a button on a remote and the hand rail came down to become a lap bar. The whole room began to move as the screen came up, revealing a large pane of glass in its place. As the room moved, its showed what appeared to be the genetics lab.

"Well lookie here," Mr. DNA's voice said, "Those hard-working cowpokes you see behind the glass..."

"This is overwhelming, Oz," Whitley said to Ozpin, "Are these characters autoerotica?"

"No, no, we don't have any animatronics here." Ozpin replied, ignoring the boys' slip of the tongue, "Those are the real miracle workers of Jurassic Park...in unfertilized emu or ostritch eggs," Mr. DNA continued.

Jaune, who had been paying attention to the science, spoke up, "Well, wait a minute, how do you interrupt the cellular mitosis?"

"Can we see the unfertilized eggs?" Pyrrha said eagerly.

"Shortly, shortly," Ozpin said, as Jaune began struggling against his restraints.

"Can't you stop these things?" he asked

"I'm sorry, sir, it's kind of a ride," Ozpin replied.

Nora, looked at the two scientists and said, "Okay, one, two, three." Catching on quickly, Pyrrha and Jaune added their strength to Nora's and pushed the lap bar up and filed out.

"They can't do that," Whitley said in near disbelief. When the lap bar raised for him and Ozpin, he said, "Can they do that?"

The doctors walked into the busy laboratory with Ozpin and Whitley in tow. The walls were pure white, as were the clothing of all the scientists. Some wore full jumpsuits, designed to dampen the build-up of static electricity. As they walked in, a familiar voice came over the PA system.

"A reminder; the boat for the mainland will be leaving at 1900 hours. All personnel be at the dock no later than 1845. No exceptions." Emerald said.

Ozpin took the lead and walked over to a scientist with shoulder-length black hair with a pink streak, magenta eyes and one of the white jumpsuits. He was intently writing on a clipboard when Ozpin walked up behind him and patted his shoulder.

"Good day, Ren." He said as he handed his cane and hat to a scientist and started to put on a pair of nitrile gloves.

"Oh, good day, sir," Ren said as he returned to his work.

Jaune looked about the lab until his eye was caught by a table full of eggs. They looked like any other kind of bird's eggs, except for the fact that each one was about the size of a toy football. Attached to the table was a rudimentary robot arm that would occasionally turn the eggs.

"It's turning the eggs," Pyrrha said.

Nora pointed to an egg that was standing up right and shaking. It was hatching. Jaune and Pyrrha noticed this and gathered around to watch.

Dr. Ren noticed as well. "Ah, perfect timing," he said, "I'd hoped they'd hatch before I had to go to the boat."

"Ren, Ren, Ren, why didn't you tell me?" Ozpin said excitedly, "I insist on being here when they're born."

The screen focused on the egg and it hatched, with Ozpin occasionally talking, giving it encouragement, "Come on. Come on. Come one, little one," he gave a grandfatherly chuckle, "Come on then. Come on then. Very good. Push, push. Very good," he smiled as the little creature finally made it through the egg.

"Oh, God," Pyrrha said, amazed.

"There you are." Ozpin said as he started to pull the bits of egg shell that were stuck to its head and face. The newborn dinosaur start to make little squeaks and squeals as he did so. "They imprint on the first creature they come in contact with. Helps them to trust me. I've been present for the birth of every little creature on this island."

"Surely not the ones that have bred in the wild?" Nora said.

"Actually, they can't breed in the wild," Ren said, joining them around the birthing table, "Population control is one of our security precautions. There's no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park."

"How do you know they can't breed?" Nora asked as Ozpin, Pyrrha and Jaune doted over the infant.

"Well, because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female. We've engineered them that way."

As Nora paced around the table, Jaune asked, "Blood temperature seems like, about high 80s?"

"Ren?" Ozpin asked for clarification.

"91," he answered.

"Homeothermic?" Pyrrha asked for clarification, "It holds that temperature? That's incredible." Jaune took the remainder of the egg and began to examine it. However, just as he was beginning, the arm came around, took it from his hands and placed it back in the nest before swinging around into an waiting position.

"But, again, how do you know they're all female?" Nora questioned Ren, "Does somebody go out and pull up the dinosaurs skirts?"

"We control their chromosomes," Ren explained defensively, "It's really not that difficult. All vertebrate embryos are inherently female anyway. They just require an extra hormone given at the right developmental stage to make them male, and we simply deny them that."

"Deny them that?" Pyrrha asked skeptically.

Nora took a seat, "Oz, the kind of control you're attempting here, it's not possible. If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories and it crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but... Well, there it is."

"There it is." Ozpin said unconvinced.

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will breed?" Ren asked.

"No," Nora defended, "I'm simply saying that life finds a way."

Jaune held the infant dinosaur carefully in his hands, marveling that at what he was seriously doing. Really, he was holding a baby dinosaur! In his own hands! He wondered... "What species is this?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh," Ren replied, looking up from his clipboard, "It's a Velociraptor."

Jaune's face hardened as he almost glared at the scientist, "You bred raptors?" His voice was as dark as his glare. Ren looked up and simply nodded, thinking he might have done something to upset the man. Jaune looked back down at the infant Velociraptor as it grasped at his fingers and squealed softly.


	5. 5

Jaune stood outside the holding pen from the beginning of the movie, looking up at it.

"Dr. Arc!" Ozpin called as he and the others walked up to the pen, "As I was saying, we laid on lunch for you before you set out into the park. Our gourmet chef, Alejandro- "

"What are they doing?" Jaune asked as a crane lifted a steer into the air.

"Oh, feeding them." As the steer lifted higher into the air, Ozpin tried to make Jaune come along, saying "Alejandro's prepared a delightful menu for us. Vacuoan sea bass, I believe. Shall we?"

The cow moved over to the pen as the group clambered up a staircase and onto a viewing platform. A gate in the top of the pen opened up as the steer was lowered into the pen and disappeared into the dense foliage. As the top gate slammed shut, the jungle erupted in growls, shrieks, and cries. The foliage moved incredibly fast, allowing those on the viewing platform to see the Raptors tear their lunch to pieces. Nora looked physically shook at what she had just seen, holding a hand over her chest to steady her breathing and the other clutching a railing to keep herself somewhat upright. Pyrrha had a sort-off grimace and Jaune looked on in stunned fascination until a gruff voice brought him back to Realityland.

"They should all be destroyed." Said Qrow as he walked up the stairs to the platform. He was wearing his usual garb, with Harbinger noticeably absent.

"Ah! Qrow Branwen, my game warden from Vale," Ozpin introduced him, "Bit of an alarmist I'm afraid, but he's one of the best Huntsmen I know and knows more about Raptors than anybody."

Jaune immediately started asking him questions, as they both leaned back on railings, facing each other. "What kind of metabolism do they have? What's their growth rate?"

"They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal. I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move..."

"Fast for a biped?"

"Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles an hour if they ever got out in the open, and they're astonishing jumpers."

"Yes. That's why we're taking extreme precautions." Ozpin tried to reassure everybody. He tried to show Pyrrha their security measures until they were interrupted when one of the Raptors made a brief shriek.

"Do they show intelligence?" Jaune asked Qrow, "Because their brain cavity- "

"They show extreme intelligence. Even problem-solving intelligent. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally but when she came in, she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one," he paused to take a sip from his hip flask, "when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came."

"The fences are electrified, right?" Pyrrha asked.

"That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember." He said, as he took another sip from his flask. As he did, the crane started to raise the harness that held the steer. As it came up, the group saw that the harness was torn to pieces, shredded in some places.

"Yes, well, who's hungry?" Ozpin said, trying to lighten the mood.

A plate of fish fillets was placed in front of Pyrrha, who didn't have much of an appetite after what she saw at the Raptor pen. Everyone was seated around a black stone table with a series of projection screens behind them cycling through ads for different rides as a recording of Ozpin described each one.

"None of these attractions are ready yet, of course," said Ozpin, "But the park will open with the basic tour you're about to take. And then other rides will come online, six or twelve months after that. Absolutely spectacular design. We spared no expense."

"And we can charge whatever we want," Whitley chimed in, "Two-thousand a day, ten-thousand, and people will pay. And then there's the merchandise- "

"Whitley," Ozpin interrupted, "This park was not built to cater only to the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals."

"Sure, they will. We'll have a coupon day, or something." Whitley joked, Oz joining in on it.

"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here... staggers me." Nora said quietly.

"Thank you, Dr. Valkyrie, but I think things are a little different than you and I had feared."

"Yeah, I know, they're a lot worse."

"Now, wait a minute, we haven't even seen the park yet- "

"Whitley, let her talk." Ozpin interrupted, "There's no reason, I want to hear every viewpoint, I really do."

"Don't you see the danger inherent in what you're doing here, Oz?" Nora questioned, "I mean, genetic power is the most awesome force the world has seen since the harnessing of Dust, but you wield it like a kid who's found his dad's gun."

"It's hardly appropriate to start hurling- "Whitley said before Nora cut him off again.

"If I may, if I may, um, I'll tell you problem with the scientific power you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. Okay? You read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and you slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you want to sell it. You're going to sell it."

Ozpin was shaking his head in disappointment, "I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody has ever done before." He said.

"Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to ask if they should!"

"Condors. Condors are on the verge of extinction- "

"No, no, no..." Nora groaned. He was missing the point.

"No, if I was to create a flock of condors on this island, you wouldn't have anything to say."

"No, hold on, this isn't some species that was obliterated by deforestation, or by an increase in Grimm numbers. Dinosaurs had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction."

"I simply don't understand this Luddite attitude, especially from a scientist. I mean, how can we stand in the light of discovery, and not act?"

"Oh, what's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world." Nora said with a smug grin.

"Well, the question is how can you now anything about an extinct ecosystem?" Pyrrha said hoping to diffuse the tension in the air by changing the subject, "And therefore, how could you ever assume that you can control it? I mean, you have plants in building that are poisonous. You pick them because they look good, but these are aggressive livings things that have no idea what century they're in and they will defend themselves. Violently, if necessary."

Ozpin, looked about, amazed that so few people were with him. "Doctor Arc," he said, "If there's one person here who can appreciate what I'm trying to do..."

Jaune took in a breath before voicing his thoughts. Ozpin was not going to like what he had to say.

"The world has just changed so radically, and we're all running to catch up. I don't want to jump any conclusions, but look, dinosaurs and man. Two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have suddenly just been thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?"

"I don't believe it," Ozpin said with a chuckle, "I don't believe it. You're meant to come down here and defend me against these characters, and the only one I've got on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer. Ha!"

"Thank you," Whitley said, taking it as a compliment of his abilities as a lawyer. A older gentleman walked over to Ozpin and began whispering in his ear, making a smile break out on his face.

"Well," he said, standing up, "They're here."

As the group descended into the main lobby of the visitor's center, Ozpin was talking, again.

"You four are going to have a spot company out in the park," he said, "Spend a little time with our 'target audience'."

"Grandpa!" a pair of young girls said, running up to Ozpin. The older one had blonde hair, worn in two pigtails over either shoulder. She had an orange scarf around her neck, a tan blouse with a dark orange belt, black shorts, and brown shoes. The younger one, also somehow the faster one, had short black hair tinted red at the tips. She wore a red sleeveless hoodie with a matching cape, a black skirt and black sneakers.

"Kids!" Ozpin called, holding his arms out. The girls ran up the stairs two at a time, and hug-tackled him, causing him to fall backward, "Oh, hey, careful with me!"

"We missed you!" Yang said excitedly.

"Thanks for the presents!" Ruby said with an ear-to-ear smile.

"We loved the presents!"

"Good, good, did you enjoy the helicopter?" Ozpin asked. As the kids dived into their exciting retelling of their trip, the camera panned up to look at the adults. Pyrrha was smiling with amusement. Jaune looked at her, just knowing that she was going to use this against him. Nora's expression was neutral, almost like she had seen this before. Whitley wore a look of exasperation, as if he already knew what he was going to be doing today.


	6. 6

As the group exited the visitor's center, their new charges in tow, a pair of red, green and yellow SUVs pulled up alongside. They had glass sunroofs, a trio of lights on top, and, most curiously of all, no drivers. The kids were extremely excited, and Ozpin had to try to keep them from being accidentally run over. As soon as they stopped, Yang climbed in one and started looking around.

"Aren't they lovely? Aren't they glorious? These will be your transports for the afternoon." Oz said proudly.

"No drivers?" Whitley asked, somewhat confused.

"No. No drivers. They're electric. They run on this track in the middle of the roadway. Totally non-polluting, top of the line. We spared no expense."

"It's an interactive CD-ROM!" Yang said excitedly as she messed with the touch screen on the dash, "See? You just push the right part of the screen and it talks about whatever you want."

"Yang, darling, you're alright in there," Ozpin said, directing traffic, "Dr. Nikos, come with me. Dr. Arc, come in the second car."

"I'm gonna ride with Dr. Nikos." Nora said, trying to sound casual.

Ozpin had already begun ascending the staircase back into the visitor's center by the time Jaune had started back toward the rear car. He stopped when he noticed Ruby in his way. She looked up at him with recognition and slight admiration.

"I read your book." She said.

"Oh, that's- that's great." He replied stiffly.

"Do you really think dinosaurs turned into birds and that's where they all went?"

"Well, a few species may have evolved along those lines." He grunted as he climbed into the car, Ruby hot on his heels.

"Cuz they sure don't look like birds to me." Ruby said with a chuckle. Jaune looked to Pyrrha for help, but he saw that she was enjoying this, so he got back out of the car, knowing Ruby would follow. "I heard that there was this meteor that hit the Earth someplace down in southern Vale, and made this big crater- "

"Listen..." Jaune interrupted, pausing to try and remember the girl's name.

"Ruby." She finished for him.

"Ruby, which car were you planning on?"

"Whichever one you are." She replied.

Taking this into account, Jaune formulated a plan. He started walking towards the lead car and held the door open for Ruby, acting like a total gentleman, Ruby talking the whole way, "Then I heard about this thing in _Omni,_ about this meteor making all this heat and it made a bunch of diamond dust. And that changed the weather. And they died because of the weather. And then my teacher tells about this other book by a guy named Winchester. And he says- "at the mention of his rival, Cardin Winchester, Jaune closed the door on Ruby and turned back to the other car, only to see Yang standing before him, messing with one of her ponytails and smiling.

"She said I should ride with you cuz it'd be good for you." Yang said innocently.

Jaune looked up and saw Pyrrha in the front seat of the second car laughing to herself. So that was how she wanted to play, was it?

In the control room, Qrow led Ozpin in, briefing him on a weather report he had just received.

"National Weather Service is tracking a tropical storm, about 75 miles west of us." Qrow said, taking a quick swing from his flask.

"Ay yay, yay, yay, why didn't I build in Mistral?" Ozpin said to himself, but loud enough for all to hear.

"I'll keep an eye on it," Qrow assured him, "Maybe it'll swing south, like the last one."

Ozpin patted a dark-skinned technician on the shoulder. The hair gave her away immediately. Anyone there would have recognized that hair color and style anywhere. "Emerald," he said, "Start the tour program."

Emerald swung around in her chair and began furiously typing on a keyboard. She was wearing a button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone and tucked into black slacks underneath a white lab coat. In her mouth was a lit cigarette, which seemed fairly new as very little of it was ash.

"Hold onto your butts." She said, more as a personal ritual than anything else. A final line of code, and the program began.

Outside, Whitley was in the driver's seat of the lead car with Yang and Ruby in the back talking excitedly to each other, while Jaune, Nora and Pyrrha were in the rear car with Pyrrha alone in the front. As the cars began to move, little snippets of dialogue were heard.

"You want to join the future, right?" Whitley said.

"Oh, Oum help us, we're in the hands of engineers." Nora said sarcastically.

As the cars moved along the bumpy trail, a voice came over the radio system, saying, "During most of your tour, the appropriate information will be automatically selected and displayed for you. Simply touch the area of the screen displaying the appropriate icon."

Ruby leaned over the driver's seat and looked ahead, seeing a massive gateway made of a dark stone arch with torches set in and wooden doors. "Hey, look!"

"Are we gonna hit that?" Yang asked.

"Welcome to Jurassic Park!" the computer voice said.

As the cars passed through the gate, Nora looked up and joked, "What have they got in there, Grimm Kong?"

Back in the control room, Ozpin was at a computer terminal wearing a headset. He entered a short line of code, and the interior of the lead car came on screen. "The voice you're now hearing is Ryan Haywood." He said, "We spared no expense."

Back with the cars, they were passing through a dense jungle with electric fences on either side, as Mr. Haywood began speaking again.

"If you look to the right, you'll see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour, called Dilophosaurus."

"Dilophosaurus?!" Jaune said, quickly looking out the window.

"Shit!" Pyrrha exclaimed, mirroring Jaune's enthusiasm.

"One of the earliest carnivores," Mr. Haywood explained, "We now know that Dilophosaurus is actually poisonous, spitting it's venom at it's prey, causing blindness and, eventually, paralysis, allowing the animal to eat at it's leisure. This makes Dilophosaurus a beautiful, but deadly addition to Jurassic Park."

Everyone stared out the sides of the cars as they rolled by, trying to get a glimpse of the dinosaurs Haywood was talking about. Even Yang was struggling against Ruby to get a good look, but there was nothing to see but more jungle and high fences.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, "Where?"

Jaune's face simply crinkled into a frown as the cars passed their last chance to see into the paddock and he slammed a hand into the door, conceding defeat. "Damn."

Back in the control room, Emerald was rapping a pencil against a computer screen, "Vehicle headlights are on and they're not responding." She said, running off the error and adding it to her list, "Those shouldn't be running off car batteries. Item 151 on today's glitch list. We have all the problems of a major theme park and a major zoo, and the computers aren't even on their feet yet." She took a drag from her cigarette, which had considerably shortened.

Ozpin turned to the man who sat before a trio of computer screens in a lab coat. If anything, his workplace resembled a nest more than anything else, with food and drink containers, candy bar wrappers, assorted papers, and what appeared to be a barely hidden lewd magazine scattered about and around his desk.

"Mercury," he said, "Our lives are in your hands and you have butterfingers?"

Mercury laughed as he turned around in his chair, "I am totally unappreciated in my time. You can run this whole park from this room with minimal staff for up to three days. You think that kind of automation is easy?" He took a sip of his cola "Or cheap? You know anyone who can network eight connection machines and debug 2 million lines of code for what I bid for this job? Cuz if you do, then I'd love to see them try."

"I'm sorry about your financial problems, Mercury, I really am, but they are your problems."

"Oh, you're right, Oz, you're absolutely right. You know, everything's my problem."

"I will not be drawn into another financial debate with you, Mercury. I really will not."

"There's hardly been any debate at all."

Ozpin fixed Mercury with a firm look he had used on his kids, "I don't blame people for their mistakes. But I do ask that they pay for them."

"Thanks, Dad." Mercury said sarcastically.

"Merc," Emerald said before Ozpin could retort, "The headlights."

"Yeah, I'll debug the tour program when they get back, alright?" Mercury said. Emerald's look indicated his answer wasn't enough for her. "Okay?! It'll eat a lot of compute cycles. We'll lose part of the system for a while. There's a finite amount of memory, you can't use it for everything. Are you gonna compile for half an hour- "

"Quiet! All of you!" yelled Qrow, who had been there the whole time, patiently watching the security feeds, paying extra attention to the Velociraptor pen, when he looked up and saw the current position of the tour vehicles, "They're approaching the Tyrannosaur paddock."

The cars pulled out of a tunnel and came down a small hill before stopping before a long stretch of fence and more jungle. Jaune, who had crawled into the trunk of the car he was in, so everybody could see properly, looked out and saw a whole lot of nothing. Just like the with Dilophosaurs, the jungle was silent, save for the occasional bout of chirping birds.

Nora chuckled to herself and began ticking off her fingers, saying, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs eat man," Pyrrha said, "Woman inherits Remnant." Nora started laughing while Jaune gave her a knowing look as she stared out the window, trying to see if there was something, anything, that she was missing.

"We'll try to tempt the Rex now," Emerald's voice said over the radio, "Keep watching the fence."

On cue, a small cage rose from the ground, inside of which was a goat, tethered to a metal post by a chain and collar.

"What's gonna happen to him?" Ruby said, somewhat confused. As the cage came down, she put the pieces together, "He's gonna eat the goat?"

"Excellent." Commented Yang.

"What's the matter kid?" Whitley said, keeping his eyes forward, "You never had lamb chops?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

In the other car, Jaune watched the scene unfold, with low-key disgust. "T-rex doesn't wanna be fed. He wants to hunt. You can't just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct."

Sensing it was not in any danger just yet, the goat laid down. Everyone in the cars took this as a sign that nothing was going to be happening anytime soon, and so sat back and waited for the tour to continue.

In the control room, Ozpin sat at his desk with his head resting in one hand while his other lazily typed a line of code, bringing up the interior camera of the rear car. Coincidentally, it was around this time that Nora decided it would be very funny to make fun of him by getting really close to the camera and start talking to it.

"Now, eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello? Hello? Yes?"

"I really hate that woman." Ozpin sighed as he put his other hand under his head.

Nora sat back down next to Jaune, who had climbed back into a proper seat, as the cars began to drive away from the dense jungle and into what appeared to be vast plains.

"See the Tyrannosaur doesn't obey any set patterns, or park schedules. The essence of chaos." She said, groaning as she sat back down.

"I'm still not clear on chaos."

"Oh, it simply deals with unpredictability in complex systems." Nora explained, "The short hand is the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly could flap it's wings in Vacuo and in Atlas you get rain instead of sunshine."

"Nnnyooom!" Pyrrha said, bringing her hand over her head.

"Ah. Did I go too fast?" Nora said, messing with Pyrrha's hair playfully, "I went too fast. I did a fly-by. Give me that glass of water." She indicated one of the small cups on the dashboard, "We're gonna conduct an experiment. We should be still, the car's bouncing up and down, but that doesn't really matter, it's just an example. Now, put you hand flat, like a hieroglyph." As she got Pyrrha into the proper position, Jaune noticed something out in the field. It looked like there was a vehicle out there, identical to the Jeeps they had ridden in to get to the visitor's center.

Nora continued her experiment with Pyrrha, saying "Now, let's say a drop of water falls on your hand. Which way's the drop going to roll off? Towards your fingers or your thumb or your wrist?"

"Thumb, I'd say." Said Pyrrha.

Nora dipped her middle finger into the water and let a drop of water fall onto the knuckle of Pyrrha's middle finger. The drop ran off her hand toward her wrist. "Aha! Okay," Nora said, taking note of what had happened, "Now, freeze your hand. Don't move. I'll do the same thing, start with the same place again. Which way's it going to roll off?"

"Let's say, back the same way."

"Same way?" Nora confirmed as she repeated the process. This time the drop rolled down between Pyrrha's fingers. "Ah, ah. It changed. Why?" Nora said, taking Pyrrha's hand and rubbing it softly, "Because tiny variations, the orientation of hairs on your hand- "

"Jaune, look at this."

"-The amount of blood distending your vessels, imperfections in the skin- "

"Imperfections in the skin?" Pyrrha said coyly.

"Microscopic. But they never repeat and vastly affect the outcome. That's, what?"

"Unpredictability." Pyrrha finished. As she did, Jaune opened the car door and stepped out, walking into the field.

"See? See?" Nora said excitedly, "I'm right again. No one could have predicted that Dr. Arc would suddenly jump out of a moving vehicle."

"Jaune! Jaune~!" Pyrrha called after him, following his lead.

"And there's another example." Nora said aloud, laughing to herself, "See, here I am now by myself, talking to myself. That's Chaos Theory."


	7. 7

Back in the control room, things were getting a bit crazy. There was an alarm going off because people had exited the cars, Ozpin was telling Emerald to stop the tour program, which she was doing as fast as she could, and Qrow was going on about they should have put locks on the car doors. The one person not losing their shit was Mercury, who was sitting at his terminal and appearing to be doing actual work. Which he was, kind of. He had accessed the security cameras and had a few feeds on-screen. Notably, he had brought up the camera for the embryo cold storage room and for the east dock, where the boat was loading and unloading supplies. Nearby sat his can of shaving cream.

Back in the field, the group had entered the park, Jaune leading and with the kids quick behind him. Ruby had just run up to start talking to him, picking up where they had left off.

"So, like I was saying, there was this other book by a guy named Winchester, and he says the dinosaurs died from a bunch of diseases, he definitely didn't say they turned into birds."

"Where are we going?" Pyrrha asked, "Did you see something?"

"Uh, is there anyone else who thinks we shouldn't be out here?" Whitley said nervously.

"And his book was a lot fatter than yours," Ruby said, "It was like this." She showed him, holding his book up for comparison.

"Really?" Jaune said, somewhat annoyed.

"Yours was fully illustrated." Pyrrha chimed in, knowing he didn't like discussing Cardin in any way.

Yang, who had been walking next to him, tripped and fell on a rock. Jaune grabbed her elbow to help her up. "You okay?" he asked. She nodded and slipped her hand down to grab his. Jaune tried to escape her grasp while Ruby pestered him to watch what she was doing. Pyrrha saw this, and stuck her tongue out at him impishly until a low bellowing made everyone stop in their tracks.

"Everybody stay here." Jaune said as Yang finally released his hand. He walked off into a field of waist-high grass. Not two seconds later, Ruby followed him, ignoring Pyrrha and Yang's protests. She followed Jaune's path through the grass and came upon a sight that made her gasp.

"Woah!" she said quietly. It was a fully-grown Triceratops- or she thought it was at least, it was huge to her eyes. It was lying on it's side, breathing heavily through its mouth, where its tongue was hanging out. Standing next to it were Jaune and a man with green hair and large round sunglasses. They spoke briefly before Jaune reached out and touched the beast, rubbing his hands along it's frill.

"Don't be scared." Oobleck said, "It's quite alright. Mr. Branwen tranquilized her for me. She's rather sick, I'm afraid."

Pyrrha approached, absolutely stunned. She knelt beside its' snout, practically on the verge of tears she was so happy. "Oh my god." Jaune knelt next to her, moving around towards the stomach. Even Ruby had joined in, rubbing it on the frill and one of the horns. Meanwhile, Whitley and Yang stood off to the side, amazed at the sight before them.

"She was always my favorite when I was a kid," Jaune said to Pyrrha, "And now I see she's the most beautiful thing I ever saw."

Pyrrha beamed at him in agreement before she looked down and noticed something; what looked like some kind of lump on it's tongue. She reached into it's mouth to inspect it, causing the beast to let out a soft bellow. Pyrrha soothed it before she reached in and pinched the lump, causing a sort of puss to burst forth. "Microvesicles. That's interesting." She said with obvious disgust. Oobleck walked over and handed her a small flashlight. "What are her symptoms?" she asked.

"Imbalance, disorientation, labored breathing. Seems to happen about every six weeks or so." He said and Pyrrha began to inspect the beast's eyes. Jaune, meanwhile, had placed his ear to the dinosaur's stomach and was listening to it breathe. It was then that Pyrrha noticed something about the dinosaur's eyes. Normally, when an animal was tranquilized, the eyes would become constricted. However,...

"These are dilated." Pyrrha said, shining her flashlight in the dinosaur's other to show Dr. Oobleck.

"Really?" he looked at them and was convinced.

"That's pharmacological. From local plant life." Pyrrha said to herself. She got up and started to scan around for anything that may have caused such an effect. Her search brought her to some nearby bushes that had lilac colored berries on them, along with small piles of smooth stones. "Is this West Mistralian lilac?" she asked as Nora walked over behind her.

"Indeed. We know it's toxic, but the animals don't eat them." Oobleck confirmed.

"You're sure?"

"Very much so."

"Well, there's only one way to be positive," Pyrrha said, turning around, "I'd have to see the dinosaur's droppings."

"Dino-droppings? Droppings?" Nora said.

"Yeah."

In the control room, Qrow was on the phone with Ozpin and Emerald alongside him. They were all looking at a computer showing a meteorological model of a large storm.

"Yep. Yeah, I got that," he said into the phone, before covering the receiver with his shoulder, "That storm center hasn't dissipated or changed course. Looks like we're gonna have to cut the tour short. Pick up tomorrow where we left off."

"Are you sure we have to?" Ozpin said.

"It's not worth the risk, Oz." Emerald chimed in as Qrow went back to the phone, confirming details.

"Tell them when they get back in the cars." Ozpin ordered.

Emerald turned to the control room, "Ladies and gentlemen, last shuttle leaving for the dock leaves in approximately five minutes. Drop what you're doing and leave now."

"Damn!" Ozpin said angrily, slamming his cane on the ground.

Out in the field, Nora had shed her jacket, rolled up the sleeves of her black shirt and was sauntering up to a large brown mound with flies buzzing around it. she took off her dark sunglasses and said, "That is one big pile of shit."

Meanwhile, Pyrrha was busy digging through a smaller mound nearby, thankfully wearing rubber gloves that came up to her biceps.

"You're right, there's no trace of lilac berries." She said to Dr. Oobleck, "That's so odd though." She began talking to herself as she wracked her brain for some sort of answer. "Alright, she's suffering from _Melia_ toxicity every six weeks..."

As she began to walk back towards the Triceratops, Nora turned to Jaune and said, "She's tenacious."

"You have no idea." Jaune said back.

"You will remember to wash your hands before you eat anything?" Nora yelled at Pyrrha, jokingly.

Mercury rapidly typed in a line of code, causing an icon to light up on his screen that said "Execute?"

Thunder cracked overhead, startling Whitley and causing Yang to just look around, almost unbothered.

"Doctors, if you please," he said, "I have to insist that we get moving."

Jaune and Pyrrha stood up, turning their attention away from the dinosaur.

"You know, if it's alright, I'd like to stay with Dr. Oobleck and finish up with the Trike." Pyrrha said, eager to spend more time with the beautiful creature, "If, you know-"

"Of course, of course," Oobleck interrupted, "I'm in a gas-powered Jeep. I can drop her off at the visitor's center before I make the boat with the others."

"Great. Then I'll catch up with you if you wanna go on." She said to Jaune.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I want to stay with her a little longer."

As Pyrrha knelt besides the 'Trike' Yang walked over and, almost bodily, pulled her sister away from the dinosaur while the others began making their way back to the cars. Meanwhile, the storm intensified.

Mercury looked at the recording he had of the East Dock and the man who spoke into the phone.

"There's nothing I can do." He said as the surf washed over the dock, "The captain says we gotta go, we gotta go."

"No, no, listen, you gotta give me the time." Mercury pleaded into his headset, "I did a test run on this thing and it took me twenty minutes. I thought I could maybe push it to eighteen, but you gotta at least give me fifteen minutes. Give the fifteen minutes."

"No promises," the sailor said before he hung up the phone. Mercury looked up at the three remaining individuals and sighed.

"Visitor vehicles are returning to the garage." Emerald reported.

"So much for our first tour," Ozpin mused while idly toying with his cane, "Two no-shows and one sick Triceratops."

"It could have been worse, Oz. A lot worse."

"Anybody want a soda or something?" Mercury said, getting up from his desk, "I'm going up to the machine. I thought maybe I'd get somebody something, cuz I've had all these sweets and I'm gonna get something salty to off set it. Any takers?" Silence followed. "Oh, real quick, I finished debugging the phones." he began zipping up his jacket, "You should probably know that the system is gonna be compiling for about 20 minutes so some of the minor systems will switch on or off, but it's nothing out of the ordinary."

Seeing Emerald acknowledge him, he turned to his computer and clicked on the red "Execute?" icon. It automatically closed the majority of his windows and brought up a built-in stopwatch program. He synchronized his watch with the computer stopwatch and turned to leave.

The cars, meanwhile, were moving through the jungle back towards the visitor's center, rain pouring down in sheets. The girls were with Whitley once again in the lead car, while Jaune and Nora took up the front seats of the rear car.

"You got any kids?" Jaune asked almost randomly.

"Me? Oh, hell yeah. Three. I love kids." Nora responded before taking a swig from a flask. "Anything at all can and does happen. Same with wives, for that matter." She offered the flask to Jaune.

"You're married?" Jaune said, waving off the flask.

"Occasionally. I'm always on the lookout for a future ex-Mrs. Valkyrie."

Mercury walked up the ramp out of the control room with his usual swagger, shoulders lax and hands in his pockets, but his eyes were laser focused on the entrance to the lab on his right. He took out his watch and checked the timer. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One..." As his timer hit zero, he heard the airlock door unlock. He grinned and pushed it open with impunity, knowing full well that all the cameras inside were knocked out.

Emerald, at the time, was lighting a new cigarette when an alert on her computer caught her attention.

"That's odd."

"What?" Ozpin asked, bored.

"Door security systems are shutting down."

"Well, Mercury did say a few systems would go off-line, didn't he?"

In the lab, Mercury pushed open the door to the cold storage room and raised the two towers that kept the embryos frozen. He pulled the can of shaving cream from his jacket pocket and set to work putting the embryos in the internal compartment, delicately, one at a time. When he had finished, he returned the towers to their original positions, resealed the door behind him, and screwed the shaving cream canister back together.

"By the way, Dr. Nikos," Nora said, trying and failing to be subtle, "She's not, like, available, is she?"

"Why?" Jaune replied, not liking the direction Nora was going.

The single word clicked in Nora's mind. "I'm sorry. Your two are..."

"Yeah." Jaune said, getting ready to dig into Nora before the cars suddenly came to a halt. "Okay, what'd I touch?" he said sarcastically.

"Uh, you didn't touch anything. We stopped." Nora said, thankful for the unexpected distraction.

More alarms were now blaring in the control room, causing Emerald to actually start worrying.

"Aw, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell?"

"What now?" Ozpin asked.

"Fences are failing all over the park."

"Find Mercury! Check the vending machines!" Ozpin ordered Qrow.

It wouldn't do any good, though. He wasn't even in the building anymore. A Jeep stopped in front of the main gates to the park. Mercury hopped out, ran up to a control box, ignoring the pouring rain, and activated the manual override for the gate. He ran back to the car, and blasted through the gate into the park itself.

Back in the control room, Emerald walked over to Mercury's computer and was repulsed almost the second she sat down. "Look at this work station!" she said, shoving trash of the desk, "What a complete slob."

"The raptor fences aren't out, are they?" Qrow asked, worried.

Emerald did a quick check on the computer and replied, "No, no, they're still on."

Ozpin looked to Qrow and asked, "Why the hell would he turn the other ones off?"

Once again, Ozpin's question was answered as Mercury pushed open another gate, giving him direct access to the park. He walked back to his car and zoomed through the gate. The roads were bumpy as all hell, and he could barely see out the windshield, so it was no surprise when he saw a sign, he tried to stop his car but ended up fishtailing and crashing into said sign. He got out and looked at it. It said 'East Dock' and had an arrow underneath that was supposed to show which way to go. The only problem was that the arrow had fallen off, leaving him clueless as to where to go.

"Shit." He muttered to himself.

Back at the control room, Emerald was busy try to fix what Mercury had done, talking to herself as she typed.

"Access main program... access main security... access main program grid." Each one failed, and after the third try, the screen began to repeat a single phrase; 'YOU DIDN'T SAY THE MAGIC WORD!' Suddenly, a cartoonish image with Mercury's face appeared on another screen and began to say, 'Ah, ah, ah, you didn't say the magic word!' on a loop. "Please!" Emerald yelled, "God damnit! I hate this hacker crap."

"Call Black's people, in Vale." Ozpin said, pushing a phone towards Emerald. She started dialing but gave up when she didn't hear a dial tone.

"Phones are out too."

"Where did the vehicles stop?" Ozpin asked Qrow, looking up at him.


	8. 8

The goat bleated within the Tyrannosaur paddock, audible over the pouring rain as Jaune ran back to his car to take cover from the storm. The cars had inexplicably stopped right in front of the enclosure, and, not knowing what to do, he went to confer with the only other adult present.

"Their radio's out too." He said, as he climbed back into the driver's seat and closed the door, soaking wet. "Schnee said to stay put."

"Kids okay?" Nora asked, concern evident in her voice.

"I didn't ask. Why wouldn't they be?"

"Kids get scared."

"What's to be scared of? It's just a little hiccup in the power- "

"I didn't say I was scared."

"I didn't say you were scared." Jaune said, giving Nora a sidelong glance.

In the front car, Ruby jumped up and cried "Boo!", startling her big sister and waking up the white-haired adult in the driver's seat. Yang's momentary fright was justified. Ruby was wearing a large pair of goggles over her eyes that were colored in yellow and green camouflage and clearly too big for her.

"Hey," Whitley said shortly, "Where did you find those?"

"In a box under my seat." Ruby chirped.

"Are they heavy?"

"Yeah." Ruby said, weighing them in her hands. They were heavy to her, at least.

"Then they're expensive. Put them back." Whitley said as he returned to resting his eyes, letting the drumming of the rain on the windshield help him fall asleep. Ruby gave him a small pout before completely disregarding what he said as soon as his eyes were closed and climbing into the trunk area with the goggles still on her head. As she passed Yang in the back seat, the blonde grabbed a pamphlet and gave the brunette a light smack on the head with it.

"Don't scare me." She said quietly.

Ruby stared out the back windshield of the car and turned on the goggles. Instantly, the world turned shades of green and she could see as well as she normally could in the daytime.

"Woah, cool. Night vision." She said as she began fiddling with the zoom dial. She saw that the rear car had one of its doors open and Dr. Arc was filling up a canteen of some kind with rain water.

Feeling that his canteen was sufficiently full, Jaune pulled his hand back in, closed the door, and took a sip from the canteen before offering it to Nora, who politely took it.

In the front car, Ruby took off her goggles, turned and halted her sister, who had been fanning herself with the pamphlet she had smacked Ruby with.

"Do you hear that?" she asked quietly.

She slid into the back seat and leaned over the front passenger seat, starring at the two small cups of water on the dash. They were rippling, though nobody in the car was moving. Soon, a dull thudding could be heard, loud enough to even wake up Whitley, who had been dozing comfortably. Slowly, the thudding grew louder, and he saw it reflected in the water.

"Maybe it's the power trying to come back on." He whispered. Ruby remained unconvinced.

"What is that?" Yang asked as Ruby crawled back into the trunk and looked out the car again, this time in the direction of the goat in the paddock, realizing that she hadn't heard it in a while. As her night vision came into focus, she saw that the goat was gone, the pole it was tethered to bent, and the chain swinging freely. Yang and Whitley too saw this, and Yang started to breathe a bit heavier.

She turned to her sister and said, "Where's the goat?" Her question was immediately answered when one of the goat's legs fell on the sunroof, scaring her and Whitley. Ruby however, simply took off her goggles and looked up at the fence. What she saw scared her silent.

Hanging from the supposedly electrified fence was what she thought was the tiny, two-clawed fore arm of a T. Rex. She thought it impossible until the arm slid off the fence and the beast's massive head came into view as it swallowed the rest of the goat whole and turned to look at the vehicles.

"Oh, Oum!" Whitley said before he scrambled out of the car.

"He left us." Yang whispered in shock.

Whitley ran past the rear car, scared out of his mind, before he ran for a nearby bathroom and hid himself in a stall, yelping when he fell backwards onto the toilet.

"Where does he think he's going?" Jaune said with disdain.

Nora shook her head slightly. "When you gotta go, you gotta go."

Suddenly, the two adults heard a thump, followed by the sounds of several of the thick wires of electric fence snapping free. Somewhat unsupported, the fence creaked loudly as it began to shift.

"Dr. Arc?" Yang said, hoping someone would come help them. The T. Rex, meanwhile, continued to tear the wires from the fence. Finally free, it stepped over the moat, onto the road, and let out a roar.

"Boy do I hate being right all the time." Nora whispered, staring at the mighty beast before her. The Rex let out another mighty roar before circling around the rear car.

"Keep absolutely still." Jaune told her, "Its vision is based on movement."

Yang, on the other hand, did not know this and was busy rummaging through the trunk until she found a case with a high-power portable flashlight, which she immediately took out and turned on, searching for something, anything. The T. Rex, who had been busy with the rear car, saw the beam of light and instantly started towards the lead car.

"Turn the light off." Jaune said firmly, knowing it would do no good. "Turn the light off."

"Turn the light off!" Ruby yelled as the Rex came closer, eventually stopping next to the open front door. Calmly and slowly, Ruby reached out, grabbed the handle, and closed the door as quickly and silently as she could. The first, she succeeded on. The second, not so much. She knew because, as soon as the door closed, the Rex's head immediately swung in the direction of the noise with a snarl, leaving the girls frozen with fear breathing heavily.

Ruby and Yang now had the monster's full attention, problem was, the Rex couldn't find them. Oh, it knew they were there, but the rain was messing with its sense of smell, and since the car wasn't moving, it couldn't see it. Instinct told it they were right in front of it, but it's brain couldn't confirm it. It lowered its head until it was looking directly at Yang, who simply shone the flashlight in its eye, causing it to move away.

The girls looked at each other in uncertainty. Finally, the Rex let out a frustrated roar that made the girls cover their ears it was so deafening. It looked directly into the car, and the girls scrambled back in fright. This was their first mistake, for the Rex let out a short snarl and gave the car a nudge with its snot, causing the car to lift up onto two wheels and the girls within to start screaming.

Ruby clambered into the back seat. "Turn- turn it off!" she said to Yang, trying to wrestle the flashlight from her grip.

"I'm sorry!" Yang wailed as she and Ruby started bickering with each other as they tried to get the flashlight turned off. What they didn't realize was the beam from the light travelling upward until it shone out of the glass sun roof over their heads. This was their second mistake.

The next second, they found themselves on their backs, screaming and holding the sunroof up with their hands as the Tyrannosaur rammed its head through the roof to get at them. It reared its head back, and dived in for a second chance, not understanding why it was unable to reach its quarry. Meanwhile, Nora and Jaune watched it all go down.

Using the side of its head, the Tyrannosaur then rolled the car onto its roof, with the girls still inside, and began to attack the undercarriage, holding it steady with one foot. Having seen enough, Jaune leapt into the trunk and found a crate- the exact same as the one Yang had found previously. However, instead of the flashlight, he grabbed a flare, lit it and stepped out into the rain.

"Hey!" he yelled, waving the flare about. The Tyrannosaur gave a roar in response, its foot still pressing down on the car, flooding the now windowless cabin with mud.

Nora seemed to have a similar plan, and lit up a flare of her own.

Back outside, Jaune was waving the flare from side to side, keeping the beast's attention, before throwing the flare into the jungle. The T. Rex followed with a bellow and Jaune's plan would have worked perfectly, if Nora hadn't jumped out the other side of the car.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" she yelled, waving her flare about, catching the Rex's attention.

"Nora, freeze!" Jaune ordered.

"Get the kids!" she yelled as she held the flare aloft and began to run.

"Get rid of the flare!" Nora threw her flare into the enclosure, but the Rex obviously found her to be the better prey as it continued to follow her as she fled. In the bathroom, Whitley was praying to the Gods as the Tyrannosaur finally caught up to Nora. It crashed into the outhouse with a roar, throwing Nora aside with its snout and causing it to collapse, burying Nora in dried palm fronds. Whitley sat on the toilet in the rain, looking up at the beast who gazed down at the scared little man before it. Before Whitley could utter a word, the beast grabbed him up to his waist in its jaws and violently shook him side to side.

Jaune, meanwhile was busy extricating the girls from the overturned car.

"Dr. Arc!" Yang cried as he helped her out.

"I'm stuck!" Ruby said with a grunt, "The seat's got my feet."

"I'll get you next." He told Ruby as he helped Yang get to her knees. She was covered in mud, her wet hair plastered to her face. When she finally got out and Jaune was able to turn his attention to freeing Ruby, Yang looked up and screamed when she saw the T. Rex.

Jaune reacted instantly, grabbing one of her arms and covering her mouth with his free hand. "Don't move!" he whispered, "He can't see us if we don't move." The Tyrannosaur stood before them, making a large foot print in the fresh mud. It leaned down until it was almost a foot away from their faces, but it ran into the same problem of being unable to see them. It tried to sniff them out, blowing Jaune's hat off his head in the process, but to no avail. In frustration, it spun the car around clockwise, forcing Jaune and Yang to scramble to keep up. When the car finally stopped, they found they now had cover from the beast.

The Tyrannosaur turned its attention back to Ruby who remained under the car, no longer stuck, yet still trapped. She screamed as the hunter attempted to flip the car over to get at her. Yang and Jaune tried to go around the other side of the car but were blocked by the T. Rex when it pushed the car in its attempts to get Ruby. It pushed further still until Jaune and Yang found themselves at the edge of a twenty-foot drop into the T. Rex's enclosure.

Jaune grabbed one of the wires, swung Yang onto his back and began to climb down the side of the concrete wall. About three feet down, they heard the T. Rex snarl in frustration and saw the front of the car move out over the wall. It was going to go over the side and hit them on the way down! Terrified, Yang wrapped her arms around Jaune's throat.

"Yang!" he strained to say, "Yang, you're choking me!" The car moved further forward. He looked to the side and got an idea. "Grab the wire!" he said, as she started to swing himself closer to it, Yang's arm outstretched. With each swing, they came closer to grabbing the other wire, while the other car came closer to falling over the side of the wall, until it finally fell, landing in a tree in the enclosure, ostensibly with Ruby still inside. Luckily, Yang managed to grab the wire as the car fell.

Seeing its prize gone, the Tyrannosaur let out a final mighty roar.


	9. 9

Back in the Control room, Emerald was sitting at Mercury's computer with Pyrrha, Ozpin, and Qrow watching her.

"Keycheck space minus 0. Keychecks off. Safety space minus 0." Emerald said, reading off the command history of the terminal aloud, "He's turning off the security systems. Doesn't want anybody to see what he's about to do. Now listen to this next entry, it's the kicker. 'White rabbit object'. Whatever it did, it did it all. But with Keychecks off, the computer didn't log the key strokes, so now the only way to find it is go through the computer's lines of code one-by-one."

"How many lines of code are there?" Pyrrha asked.

"'Bout two million." Emerald said, taking a drag from her cigarette.

"Two million?"

"Yeah."

"Qrow," Ozpin said, turning to his warden, "I wonder if you'd be good enough to take a gas jeep, and bring back my grandchildren?"

"Sure." He replied. As he walked off, he took a small swing from his flask.

"I'm going with him." Pyrrha said, following after him.

"Oz. Oz!" Emerald said trying to get the older man's attention. When he finally turned around, she told him flat-out, "I can't get Jurassic Park back online without Mercury Black."

Back in the park, Mercury was driving down a muddy dirt road, wondering where the hell he was. He felt that he should have reached the docks by now. He blew past a sign. Realizing what it indicated, he immediately turned the wheel to the right as far as it would go in an attempt to turn around.

Unsurprisingly, he failed and wound up fishtailing past a wooden fence and down a hill, where he was stopped when a fallen tree caught his rear wheels. Realizing he was stuck, he jumped out of the car to assess the situation. Looking around, he finally found the road that would lead him to the dock. Now to get himself unstuck.

He unwound a hook attached to a length of wire from a winch attached to the front of his jeep, muttering his plan to himself. "Winch this sucker off the thing and then I tie it to that tree over there. Pull the car down and the wire goes back in the thing. Easy."

As he turned around, he slipped on the wet ground and fell down a small waterfall, landing face-first in the mud.

"Perfect. Just fucking perfect." He swore to himself. He picked himself up and walked over to the tree. "Cool down Merc, focus on the money." He checked his watch as he wound the wire and hook around the tree, "Yeah, I still got time."

As he tightened the wire, a dinosaur, poked it's head around the right side of the tree with a squeak. It was small, about the size of a bird house, and had two crests rising from it's head in a v formation.

"Hello?" Mercury said nervously, checking his back. When the dilophosaur repeated the action on the other side of the tree, Mercury saw it, and regarded it with a scoff and a cocky smile. "Huh. 'Kay, bye."

He started back towards the jeep, not knowing that his new friend was following him until it let out another of its hooting squeaks. Mercury turned around and saw that the dinosaur was as tall as his waist, and well-muscled for its size.

"You know, I'd be more worried about you if you were one of your big brothers." He said, pulling up the hood of his coat. "What do you want? Food? Take a look pipsqueak, I just fell down a hill, I'm soaking wet and I'm irritable. I have no food on me, so scram." When the dinosaur failed to move, he shook his head and scoffed in disgust. "Can't even follow orders. No wonder you're extinct. I'm gonna run you over once I get my car down here."

That said, he turned and started back up the hill, moving against the water and mud flowing down it. As he reached the top, he turned around and saw the same stupid creature standing behind him. That's when it happened.

Suddenly, a large colorful frill came up from the dilophosaur's neck, framing its squawking face. It reeled it's head back and spat something at Mercury, covering his chest and some of his neck with a foul-smelling black goo. Touching it, Mercury could feel his skin begin to tingle where it made contact. Sufficiently freaked out by this, he scrambled to his feet and made his way to the open car door, turning to make sure the dilophosaur was where it should be. This was a mistake, as the dinosaur again spat at him, though this time the goo landed on his face. Specifically, in his eyes. It burned, and he screamed in pain, trying to rub it from his eyes. He tried to get in the car, but rammed his head on the door frame. He fell over, and as he did so, the can of shaving cream fell out of his pocket. It was carried away by the current down to the bottom of the hill where it was buried in a mound of mud.

Mercury managed to pull himself back into the car and slam the door shut behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief before he heard it again. The sound of that frill and the deafening roar of the dilophosaur. He turned and had just enough vision left to see the monster in the car with him before it attacked him.

And all he could do was scream.

Jaune stood by a drain pipe as he used the water flowing out to wash the mud from his face. The rain had finally stopped by the time he and Yang had reached the foot of the concrete wall, and he was a man on a mission, and that mission only had one objective: Rescue Ruby. Yang stood nearby, hysterical, muddy and wet. Jaune turned and scanned the trees to find the one the car had fallen in.

"Ruby! Ruby?!" he yelled when he found the tree. When he heard no reply, he turned to Yang, "Now, Yang, listen." However, she was still hysterical. "Yang! I'm right here. I'm gonna look after you, but I have to help your sister. So I want you to stay right here, and wait for me."

"He left us." She said quietly, referring to Whitley, "He left us!"

"But that's not what I'm gonna do." He said calmly, looking her dead in the eye. "Okay? Stay here."

Not feeling safe out in the open, she crawled into the storm drain.

Jaune approached the tree, calling Ruby's name, but still getting no answer. He feared she might be dead, or unconscious at least, but there was only one way to know for certain. Even though he didn't like it, he began to climb the tree.

"Ruby? You hear me? I'm coming up." He called up as he climbed, brachiosaurs bellowing in the distance. The entire way up, he talked to himself about how he hated climbing, hated trees, that they were too tall.

Eventually, he reached the car. He continued to call out Ruby's name, softer now. He looked in and saw her sitting on the glove compartment and leaning against the seat in front of it. Her clothes were soaked and muddy, as was her face, and she had a long gash over her right eye. She opened her eyes and saw him standing outside the car.

"You okay?" Jaune asked as he opened the driver's side door.

"I threw up." She croaked. The smell confirmed it.

"Oh," Jaune said awkwardly, "That's- that's okay. Just give me your hand." He offered her his, but she didn't budge. "Ruby, I won't tell anyone you threw up, just give me your hand." He tried to reach further in by using the steering wheel, but only succeeded in turning the wheels of the car. Ruby grabbed the arm rest and a part of the car frame and carefully hauled herself to her feet. She took Jaune's hand and, together, they managed to get her out with only a small amount of creaking from the car itself. Finally, Ruby was out of the car and standing on a study branch close to Jaune.

"That's wasn't too bad, right, Ruby?" he said calmly.

"Yes, it was."

"It's like coming out of a tree house. Did your dad ever build you a tree house?"

"No."

"Yeah, me too." He said, "Now, the thing about climbing is, you never, never look down."

Ruby looked down. "This is impossible." She said.

Jaune looked down, immediately regretting it. "So..." he gulped.

"How am I supposed to do this? It's like- "

"I'm gonna help you with your- "

They both stopped when they heard the car groan as it shifted downwards. Jaune saw the tire had been turned in his direction and was now overextended. He put two and two together, knowing exactly whose fault it was.

"Oh no," he whispered before ordering, "Ruby, go!"

They had descended a few feet when the car moved again. Jaune saw it coming and braced himself for impact. Thankfully, it was halted just a few inches from Jaune's back by a sturdy tree branch. Jaune and Ruby resumed their descent as the branch holding the car groaned under the load it was bearing. Jaune looked up and saw the branch begin to give.

"Oh, gogogo, go, Ruby, go!" The duo began to operate almost on instinct, using any branch that looked safe to climb down. Luckily, they were all strong enough to support them. The car resumed it's fall, mowing down every branch in its path. "Faster, Ruby!"

Finally, as they neared the base of the tree, Jaune ordered Ruby to jump down. They landed between a pair of roots that the car also landed on. Jaune pushed Ruby forward as the car began to fall over. He then grabbed her and shielded her as they allowed the car to fall on them. Good thing the sunroof had been smashed in the attack.

"Well," Ruby said, catching her breath, "We're back, in the car again."

"Well," Jaune said with a small chuckle, "At least you're out of the tree."


	10. 10

Qrow and Pyrrha's jeep pulled up to the scene of the attack. Without the T. Rex around, it was fairly peaceful, so long as you ignored the giant hole in the fences, the massive footprints, and the missing car. Pyrrha jumped out before the jeep had even stopped.

"Where's the other car?" she said, growing far beyond worried, "Where's the other car!? Jaune!"

"Dr. Arc!" Qrow called.

"Jaune!"

"Arc!" Qrow lifted up a piece of the outhouse and shined his flashlight on the object underneath. "I think this was Schnee."

"I think this was too." Pyrrha said, almost retching at the sight of a mangled piece of meat. Suddenly, they heard the tyrannosaur roar in the distance. "I think it's ahead of us."

"It could be anywhere," Qrow said, "With the fences down, it can wander in and out of any paddock it likes."

A loud groaning drew their attention to a previously unnoticed body, Nora, who was covered in ferns. Pyrrha pulled them off and noticed that her belt was tied tightly around her leg.

"She put on a tourniquet. Nora? Nora?!"

"Remind me to thank Oz for a lovely weekend." She said with all the sarcasm.

The tyrannosaur roared again. "Can we chance moving her?" Pyrrha asked Qrow.

Another roar, this time sounding closer. "Please, chance it." Nora answered.

A few minutes later, they had Nora loaded into the back of the jeep, while the tyrannosaur continued to roar and Pyrrha looked around the area where the other car had been, the obvious target of the attack. There was broken glass, pamphlets, brochures, and general wreckage everywhere, and she noticed a drag line that led to the fence.

"Pyrrha! Come on!" Qrow half-yelled/half-whispered. Pyrrha, meanwhile, continued to investigate the scene, eventually leading her to look over the concrete wall, where she saw...

"The other car!" she called.

Qrow and Pyrrha made their way to the car which lay overturned and somewhat compacted at the base of a tree.

"Dr. Arc?" Qrow called.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha said, hoping against hope that he was in there.

"They're not here." Qrow said when they looked inside. Disappointed, Pyrrha looked at the ground where she noticed footprints leading away from the car. Looking closer, she noticed that they were three different sizes; one adult and two kids. Her best guess was that Jaune had found the kids and led them into the park, probably trying to find a way to the visitor's center.

Back on the road, Nora was resting in the jeep when she was awoken by large thudding sounds. She opened her eyes and glanced down to the T. Rex footprint-turned puddle. Her blood pressure picked up when she heard the sound again and saw that it was accompanied by a ripple in the otherwise still water each time.

"Anybody hear that?" she said to nobody in particular, "That's a, um... It's an impact tremor, is what it is. I'm fairly alarmed here." She saw Qrow and Pyrrha running breakneck towards the jeep and began waving them over. "C'mon! C'mon c'mon c'mon! We gotta get out of here. Now, now. Right now!" She kept berating them as they jumped in the jeep. Just as Qrow managed to get it started and moving, the T. Rex burst from the trees they had come from with a roar and gave chase.

Qrow shifted into first, but the tyrannosaur gained on them.

"Must go faster." Nora said.

Nora and Pyrrha yelled at Qrow to shift gears, but he remained calm and checked the rear-view mirrors. He saw the tyrannosaur gaining on them, jaws open. Nora moved herself away from the beast, inadvertently moving the gear shift forward.

"Get off the stick!" Qrow said, "Let me move!"

"Lookout!" Pyrrha yelled.

"Down!" Qrow yelled. Everyone ducked as the windshield was smashed off by a thick, low-hanging tree branch. The T. Rex simply barreled through the rest of the branches hanging over the road. It managed to get up next to the speeding jeep and rammed its head into the side, trying to run it off the road. However, it failed, leaving only a dent in the door and a screaming Pyrrha. Qrow finally shifted into the highest gear and left the dinosaur in his dust as it backed off.

"Think they'll have that on the tour?" Nora joked as they left their pursuer behind them, roaring in frustration.

Elsewhere, Jaune and the girls heard the tyrannosaur's roaring in the distance, stopping them in their tracks.

"Are you hearing this?" Yang said quietly, obviously still freaked out to hell.

Jaune heard it, and began quickly assessing the situation. After everything they had been through in the past few hours, there was no sense in forcing the kids to march through the night to get to the visitor's center. Better to let them sleep, if only for a few hours. But where would be the safest place? They could go back to the storm drain, but that would mean going back into known Rex territory. There weren't any caves he could see, and they would only make themselves targets for any nocturnal carnivores that might be in the area. That only left one option, one that Ruby was sure to hate.

"Here, Ruby, Yang," He said taking their hands and leading to the large tree behind them, "Let's, uh, climb this tree." Ruby whined, as he knew she would, "C'mon, Ruby, let's get up here."

"I don't want to." She moaned as she reluctantly began climbing, "I hate trees."

"They don't bother me." Yang said as she followed suit.

"Oh yeah? Well you weren't in the last one."

Eventually, they climbed high enough that Jaune guessed they were out of the tyrannosaurs reach. At least he hoped. When they finally settled on the branches, Ruby pointed out in the distance.

"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing at the trio of long-necked sauropods in the valley below, "Those are brontosauruses- I mean, brachiosauruses" she corrected.

"They're singing." Jaune said, switching back into observing scientist mode without realizing. The trumpeting sounds they made did indeed sound like music, but there seemed like there was more to it. So, he decided to conduct an experiment. He got onto a higher branch, balled his fists and put them to his lips. He then proceeded to make several noises, trying to imitate the calls of the brachiosaurs. It apparently worked as a few more brachiosaurs raised their heads and all of them turned to face him.

"Shh! Don't make the monsters come over here!" Yang said, slapping his leg.

"They're not monsters, Yang, they're just animals. These are herbivores." He explained.

"That means they only eat vegetables," Ruby said, "But for you I think they'd make an exception."

"Ruby." Jaune said with a tone of warning.

"Well, I hate the other kind." Yang said, pouting.

"They kinda just do what they do." Jaune said as he took a seat behind the girls.

Without warning, the girls sat against him, Yang on his left, Ruby on his right. As Ruby managed to get comfortable, he felt a sharp pain on his rear. He reached back and dug out his fossilized raptor claw.

"What are you and Pyrrha gonna do now, if you don't have to dig up dinosaur bones anymore?" Yang asked.

"I don't know." Jaune said, not having thought about it in all the insanity, "I guess... I guess we'll just have to evolve too."

"What do you call a blind dinosaur?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know, what do you call a blind dinosaur?" Jaune said with a feeling about where she was going with it.

"Doyouthinkhesawrus." Ruby answered with a smile, making Jaune chuckle. "What do you call a blind dinosaur's dog?"

"You got me."

"Doyouthinkhesawrus Rex." Another chuckle from Jaune.

"Jaune?" Yang said, feeling groggy.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"What if the dinosaurs come back while we're all asleep?"

"Well, I'll stay awake."

"All night?"

"All night." he reassured. A few minutes later, the sisters were out cold. Jaune regarded his claw for a moment before he tossed it out of the tree, where it landed near the base.

Back at the visitor's center, in the cafeteria, Ozpin sat alone at a dining table with tub after tub of ice cream before him. Pyrrha joined him as he scooped himself another pile of dessert.

"They were all melting." He said as she took a seat.

"Nora's alright for now, I gave her a shot of morphine." She reported.

"They'll be fine." He said, trying to reassure himself more than her, "Who better to get the children through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert?" he took a bite of his "meal" and asked, "Do you know what the first attraction I ever built when I graduated from Beacon was? It was a flea circus. Petticoat Lane. Really quite wonderful.

"We had a wee trapeze, and a merry-go... a carousel... and a see-saw. They all moved- motorized, of course- but people would say they could see the fleas. 'Oh, I can see the fleas, Mommy. Can't you see the fleas?' Clown fleas, and high-wire fleas, and Fleas on Parade... but with this place? I wanted to show them something that wasn't an illusion. Something that was real. Something they could see, and touch. And not completely devoid of merit."

"But you can't think through this one, Oz, you have to feel it." Pyrrha said.

"You're right. You're absolutely right," he said, a small smile growing across his face, "Hiring Mercury was a mistake, that's obvious. We're over-dependent on automation. I can see that now. And the next time, everything's correctable."

"Oz..." Pyrrha groaned. He was missing the point.

"Creation is an act of sheer will. Next time it will be flawless."

"It's still the flea circus. It's all an illusion!"

"When we have control again- "

"You never had control, that's the illusion!" Pyrrha shouted, allowing her worry and grief to flow, "I was overwhelmed by the power of this place, but I made a mistake too. I didn't have enough respect for that power and it's out now." She let her point sink in, giving her a chance to calm down. "The only thing that matters now are the people we love. Jaune, and Yang, and Ruby, Oz they're out there where people are dying. So..." she wiped her tears and ate a spoonful of ice cream, "It's good." She said with a chuckle.

"We spared no expense." Oz replied quietly.


	11. 11

The Sun had risen. Jungles birds were heard chirping and singing in the distance. The group of three was still asleep in their tree.

But not for long.

Soon, a brachiosaur leaned in its head and began- somehow quietly- to eat a cluster of leaves nearby the trio. Jaune was woken by it's breathing as it leaned in. He remained still, with a smile on his face, as he watched the sauropod eat. Soon, Yang was woken by the noise. She did not react as well as Jaune. She began scrambling away from the dinosaur in fright, waking Ruby, whose eyes widened at the sight.

"Go away!" Yang said loudly.

"It's okay, it's okay." Jaune said, trying to calm her, lest she scare the beast off, "It's a brachiosaur."

"It's a veggie-saurus, Yang! Veggie-saurus!" Ruby chirped.

"Veggie..." Yang said, trying to comprehend the meaning.

"Mmm. C'mon, girl. C'mon." Ruby said, wanting to reach out and touch it.

"Okay." Jaune said as he reached behind him and tore off a branch with a large clump of leaves on it. He held it out to the brachiosaur, hoping she would take the bait. The sauropod eyed the meal curiously, as if trying to sense the ulterior motive.

Eventually, it gave up and took the branch in its mouth with a loud, booming cry. It tried to take it from Jaune's hands, but the man kept a firm grip and managed to bring the head closer, allowing the children to pet it. Yang, by this point was finally calming down.

"Looks like it has a cold." Ruby observed.

"Yeah, maybe." Jaune agreed. He wasn't sure if an illness in a dinosaur would be capable of spreading to humans, and he didn't particularly feel like finding out.

"Can I touch it?" Yang asked, finally warming up to the creature.

"Sure." Jaune said, "Just think of it as kind-of a big cow." Ruby giggled at the accuracy of the comparison.

"I like cows..." Yang said as the brachiosaur began to lean away from the tree. She reached out to try and pet it, but the brachiosaur was far out of her reach, so she tried to softly coax it back up. Instead, it sneezed, spraying Yang with all manner disgustingness.

Ruby crawled up behind her and yelled out, "Oum bless you!"

A few minutes later, the trio was walking through the jungle, resuming their quest to return to the visitor's center, Yang completely grossed out.

"Oh great." Ruby said, jumping at the opportunity to tease her sister, "Now she's never gonna try anything new. She'll just sit in her room and never come out and play on her computer."

"I'm a hacker." Yang said as she climbed over a tree root.

"That's what I said. You're a nerd." Ruby said, as she climbed over the same.

"I am not a computer nerd. I prefer to be called a hacker."

Jaune climbed over the same root. When he did, he looked down and was shocked at what he saw. "Oh, Gods." The kids ran over to him, sitting on the ground before a collection of broken eggshells. "Do you know what this is?" He asked the kids, picking up one of the shells. "It's a dinosaur egg. The dinosaurs are breeding."

"But grampa said all the dinosaurs were girls." Ruby said as she took the eggshell from Jaune.

"Amphibian DNA." Jaune said, putting the pieces together.

"What's that?" Yang asked.

"Well, on the tour, the film said they used frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps." Jaune explained, picking up another of the shells, "They mutated the dinosaur genetic code, and blended it with that of frogs. Now, some West Vacuoan frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female when in a single sex environment. Nora was right." he scoffed, then pointed at a line of tracks leading away from the nest, "Look. Life found a way."

Back in the control room, everyone was having a discussion about what to do next, and from the sound of things, Emerald did not like Ozpin's idea.

"No, no, no, that's crazy. You're out of your mind. He's absolutely out of his mind." Emerald said.

"Wait, what exactly would this mean?" Pyrrha said, confused.

"We're talking about a calculated risk, my dear, which is about the only option left to us." Ozpin explained, "We will never find the command Mercury used. He's covered his tracks far too well and I think it's obvious now that he's not coming back. So, shutting down the entire system- "

"Well you can get someone else to do it, cuz I won't do it." Emerald snapped, "I will not- "

"Shutting down the entire system," Ozpin said, trying to calm Emerald down, "Is the only way to wipe out everything that he did. Now, as I understand it, all the systems will then come back online under their original start-up modes, correct?" he turned to Emerald.

"Theoretically, yes, but we've never shut down the entire system before. It may not come back on at all."

"Will we at least get the phones back?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yes. Again, in theory."

"What about the Lysine Contingency?" Qrow asked, "We could put that into effect."

"That is absolutely out of the question." Ozpin said immediately, and not without a bit of an edge to his voice.

"What's that?" Pyrrha asked.

"The Lysine Contingency is intended to prevent the spread of the animals if they ever got off the island." Emerald explained, taking a drag from her cigarette, "Dr. Ren inserted a gene that creates a single faulty enzyme in protein metabolism; the animals can't manufacture the amino acid lysine. Unless they're completely supplied with lysine by us, they slip into a coma and die."

"People. Are. Dying!" Ozpin said with controlled anger. He stared her down before quietly asking "Will you please shut down the system?"

With reluctance, Emerald unlocked the electrical power box and ran through the process in her head. She hesitated while reaching for a switch labeled 'C-3', before finally flipping it downwards, causing her personal work station to shut off. She did the same with 'C-2', causing another station to go black, before finally shutting down Mercury's station. Qrow and Pyrrha each grabbed a flashlight before Emerald threw the main power switch, plunging the room into darkness. She waited a full minute before doing the process again, flipping the secondary switches back on before holding onto the main power switch.

"Hold onto your butts." She said as she threw the main switch. Nothing appeared to happen. Emerald closed her eyes, thinking that it had all failed, when she heard a small beeping sound coming from Mercury's terminal. She walked over and saw a single line of code at the bottom of the screen. 'System Ready.'

"It's okay!" she said, relieved, causing Ozpin to walk over, "See that? It's on! It worked."

Nora, who had been slumped on an elevated walkway and silent until this point, grabbed the handrail and tried to pull herself into a sitting position. "What do you mean 'it worked'? Everything's still off." She said.

"Well, maybe the shut down tripped the circuit breakers." Emerald theorized, hopeful, "All we have to do is turn them back on, reboot a few systems in here- phones, security doors, a half-dozen others- but it worked. The system's ready."

"Where are the breakers?" Qrow asked.

"Maintenance shed, other end of the compound. Three minutes, I can have power on in the entire park."

"Well, now, just to be safe," Ozpin said, taking charge, "I want everyone in the emergency bunker until Ms. Sustrai returns and the whole system is up and running again."

It was midday, and Jaune and the kids were walking up a hill in an open plain. Ruby was complaining about the heat and how hard the trek was getting and Jaune was trying to reassure her by telling her how close they were. As they crested the top of the hill, they saw a large group of ostrich-like dinosaurs running over the top of another hill not too far from the them.

"Ruby. Ruby, can you identify them for me?" Jaune said.

"They're Gal-uh...uh...Gala-umm..." she knew them, but she couldn't quite get at the name. "Gallimimus!" she finally said with pride.

"Are those, uh, meat-eating... um... meat-asauruses?" Yang asked, worried.

"Oh, look at the wheeling, uniform direction changes." Jaune said as the Gallimimuses suddenly turned towards them all at once. "Just like a flock of birds evading a predator."

While Jane was busy observing, Ruby realized something, making her eyes widen. "They're, uh..." she chuckled, "They're flocking this way." She said before she turned and ran. Yang followed her, as did Jaune when the dinosaurs began to overtake them squawking as they ran past. They were taller than Jaune, and really did look like over-sized, feather-less ostriches with full arms for wings. The trio ran for a large, fallen tree and took shelter beneath it, waiting for the herd to finish stampeding past them.

When they finally passed, the trio crawled under the log to the other side and took shelter there. Lucky they did, for a few seconds later, the tyrannosaur burst from the tree line with a roar, lunging at a pair of the charging Gallimimus. It missed it's target, but caused a third to stumble, sealing it's fate. The tyrannosaur grabbed the smaller creature in its jaws, dragged it a few feet, and then bit down even harder, shaking it from side to side, killing it. It looked up, searching for any who dare try to claim it's kill, meat hanging from it's jaws, the trio watching from their hiding place.

"I wanna go now." Yang whispered.

"Just look how it eats." Jaune said.

"Please!"

"Bet you'll never look at birds the same way again."

"Yes." Ruby said, enraptured at the site of a tyrannosaur devouring its prey.

"Go now?" Yang said, almost desperate.

"Okay," Jaune said, checking behind him and finding a good way out. "Keep down and low me."

As he and Yang crawled away, Ruby stood up to get a better view of the carnage. "Look how much blood..." she said before Jaune grabbed her bodily and pulled her away.

Pyrrha was pacing around the bunker. The power should have been on by now. Something was very wrong. Nora was laid down on a metal table, Ozpin tending to her leg wound, and Qrow leaned against a wall, twirling a set of keys in one hand.

"This is just a delay." Ozpin said, "That's all it is. All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Schneeland in 1956, nothing worked."

"Yeah, but, Oz, if the Pirates of Menagerie breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists." Nora said.

"I can't wait any more." Pyrrha declared. "Something went wrong. I'm gonna go get the power back on."

"You can't just stroll down the road, kid." Qrow said, walking over to a metal locker nearby.

"Well, don't be too hasty," Ozpin said, checking his watch, "I mean, she's only been gone..."

"I'm coming with you." Said Qrow. He opened up the locker and pulled out his Harbinger. He grabbed a set of Dust bullets and put them into his pocket before checking the weapon's mecha-shift function. Ozpin pulled out a set of blueprints out of a drawer, closing it with his hip, and placed them on the table, accidentally hitting Nora's injured leg.

"Now," he said, turning to the correct page, "This isn't going to be like switching on the kitchen light, but I think I can follow this and talk you through it." Qrow looked over the blueprints, trying to memorize it, while Pyrrha retrieved a pair of walkie-talkies. She clipped one to her hip and connected a headset to it.

"It ought to be me going." Ozpin said.

"Why?" Pyrrha asked, not liking the possible implication.

"Well, because you're... and I'm..." Ozpin said, trying and failing to not sound the way he did.

"Look, we can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back. Now, just walk me through this step by step. I'm on channel two."

"Let's go, Nikos." Qrow said, ascending the stairs.


	12. 12

Pyrrha and Qrow exited the bunker to the sounds of chirping jungle birds. Qrow held his Harbinger at the ready in sword form with Pyrrha a step behind him. On their way to the maintenance shed, they passed the raptor pen. Qrow looked up and cursed to himself quietly. Pyrrha looked and gasped in horror; a section of the fence had been destroyed. The raptors were out. Qrow noticed a set of prints in the dirt and crouched down to inspect them. They appeared to be raptor tracks and they led into the jungle- in the same direction as their goal.

"Oh, Gods." Pyrrha whispered.

"The shut-down must have turned off all the fences." Qrow reasoned, "Damn it, even Mercury knew better than to mess with raptor fences." He looked down, trying to formulate a plan. There weren't a lot of options. Without those breakers being reset, power would stay off. And even if there was another way, Emerald would be the only one who would know, and she was most likely dead. No, there was only one option left to them: push forward. "Alright, follow me." He said, as he walked into the jungle, staying on the path.

A few minutes later, Pyrrha could see the entrance to the shed, about a quarter-mile down the road. It was a straight shot through the jungle, with only a few fallen trees blocking the path.

"I can see the shed from here." She told Qrow, who was facing another direction and staring intently into the jungle, "We can make it if we run."

"No, we can't" Qrow said calmly.

"Why not?" Pyrrha asked, worried.

"Because we're being hunted. In the bushes straight ahead."

"Oh, Gods." Worry turned into terror faster than Ruby when cookies were at stake.

"It's alright."

"Like hell it is."

"Run." He told her, "Towards the shed. I've got her." He turned to Pyrrha, who was rooted to the spot, "Go! Now!"

Pyrrha started to turn, but bumped into the fallen tree behind her. Cursing, she clumsily vaulted the log and took off as fast as she could while Qrow stalked into the jungle. Maintaining her speed, she vaulted over one log, before stepping onto another, jumping, and using a branch to swing over a tangle of branches below her. A couple logs and a dirty puddle of what she hoped was water later, she made it to the concrete bunker, swung the door open, and slammed it shut behind her. She stopped herself at the top of a staircase and stared into the black.

"Ms. Sustrai?" she called, hoping the engineer was still down there. When she called again and still received no answer, she got on the walkie talkie and contacted Ozpin. "Oz, I'm in." she said as she brought out and turned on a flashlight, and began to descend the stairs.

"Great. Now, ahead of you is a metal staircase. Go down it." he instructed.

"Okay, going down."

"After twenty or thirty feet, you'll come to a T-junction. Take a left."

"Just have her follow the main cables- "Nora said.

"I know how to read a schematic." Ozpin said indignantly.

Back in the park, Jaune and the girls reached one of the electrified fences. Jaune didn't know if the power was still out, so he decided to find out. As he approached, he grabbed a stick off the ground. He climbed onto the concrete base and looked up at the warning lights; they were dark. He tossed the stick into the fence- and nothing happened.

"I guess that means the power is still out." He said, turning back to the girls.

'But there's only one way to be sure.' He thought. He reached out for the fence with both hands, and as he did, an idea came to mind. He grasped the wire and began screaming and shaking the wire. Ruby and Yang screamed in fright until he stopped and looked at them with a shit-eating grin.

"That's not funny." Yang pouted.

"That was great!" Ruby laughed.

"Well, maybe..." Jaune said as he turned back to the fence and tried to find a way for him or the girls to slip through. When a roar from the tyrannosaur came the forest behind them, the girls immediately jumped onto the concrete base and all three began to climb the fence.

Back in the maintenance compound, Pyrrha turned a corner and sighed. "Dammit, dead-end."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Ozpin said, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong, "Uh, yes, there should have been a right turn- "

Nora grabbed the walkie-talkie from him and began talking to Pyrrha, "Pyrrha, look above you. There should be a large bundle of cables and pipes all heading the same direction. Follow that."

"Okay, following the piping."

Back at the fence, the trio had reached about half-way up when Yang spoke up. "Ruby, I bet I could get to the top and be on the other side before you could even get to the top." She boasted.

"What would give me?" Ruby asked.

"Respect?" Yang teased.

"Come on guys, it's not a race." Jaune said, trying to play the middle man.

"I see the box," Pyrrha said, walking through a chain-link door, "Says high-voltage... yeah." She opened the cabinet and saw several rows of labels with a red button and a green button next to them.

Jaune and Yang had finally made it to the top of the fence and were making their way to the other side with Ruby close behind. She struggled a bit when she made the change over, but Jaune was there to support her, reminding her to find her footing before descending.

"Pyrrha," Ozpin said, reading from an instruction manual, "You can't throw the main switch by hand. You have to pump up the primer handle in order to get the charge. It's large, flat and grey."

"Alright, here goes." Pyrrha said as she began counting how many times she pushed the handle up until an indicator changed position. "Okay. Charged."

"Now, under the words 'Contact Position', is a round, green button, which says 'Push to Close'. Push it."

Pyrrha did as instructed and immediately the labels began to glow a light red, almost pink color and the green buttons did the same.

In the park, Jaune and Yang had made it safely to the other side, but Ruby was still about halfway down. Suddenly, an alarm began blaring, frightening Ruby and causing her to slip. Thankfully, she recovered quickly.

"Now, Pyrrha, the red buttons turn on the individual park systems. Switch 'em on."

Pyrrha rapidly began flipping the plastic casing off the buttons before pressing them, mouthing each one to herself. The camera slowly panned down, revealing the last three. They said 'Velociraptor Pen Fence', T-Rex Paddock Fence', and 'Perimeter Fence'.

"Ruby!" Jaune called up, Yang behind him, yelling at her sister to get down, "Ruby, you're gonna have to jump."

"Are you crazy? I'm not gonna jump!" she yelled back.

"Ruby, do what Dr. Arc says! Now!" Yang yelled up, jumping anxiously.

"Just let go. I'll count to three." Still she didn't move.

Pyrrha pressed the switches for the Control Room and the Visitor's Center Tour.

"I'm coming up to get you!" Jaune yelled up, before he turned to Yang to reassure her that he would be coming back.

"Okay," Ruby said, finally collecting her nerve and moving into position to jump. "I'm gonna count to three."

Pyrrha activated the Carnivore Feeder Compound and the Velociraptor Pen Fence switches.

"One." Ruby said. Jaune turned around.

Pyrrha turned on the T-Rex Paddock Fences and went for the final switch.

"Two-" Ruby barely finished the word before she was electrocuted and throw back off the fence by the shock. She fell fifteen feet into Jaune's arm, causing him to fall on his back from the impact.

"Ruby! RUBY!" Yang yelled, running up to Jaune, who had laid Ruby on her back and was checking her vitals.

"She's not breathing." He said.

The lights began to come on in the underground complex. Pyrrha was smiling, ecstatic even. "Mr. Ozpin, I think we're back in business!" Suddenly, a raptor burst its head from the cables behind her, shrieking. It resembled the tyrannosaur, though it was longer, narrower and pointed. It tried to break free from the tangle of cables as Pyrrha screamed and ran out of the chain-link door, slamming it behind her as the raptor broke free from its rubber-coated prison bars and jumped at her.

Pyrrha backed into a wall and felt a weight hit her shoulder. Looking down, she noticed a familiar dark-skinned hand and forearm. It was Emerald.

"Oh, Ms. Sustrai." Pyrrha said, relieved. She turned around to look at the woman, only to find that the limb wasn't attached to anything. She holding the bloody stump of Emerald's arm, severed at the elbow. She dropped the limb in shock, and began hyperventilating, backing up to the chain-link wall. The raptor lunged at her with a shriek, causing Pyrrha to fall forward. It then began using its teeth and claws to tear the chain-link from the frame. Pyrrha picked herself up and began to run with a limp- her ankle was probably twisted-, dragging the flashlight behind her and the raptor close behind. She ran up the stairs and slammed the door to the underground compound behind her. She continued to run until she reached the chain-link outer gate and slammed that door behind her as well. When she did, she collapsed into tears.

As all this happened, Qrow was busy creeping through the jungle, searching for his prey, Harbinger in hand. Eventually, he heard a rustling from the ferns directly ahead of him followed by an unmistakable growling. Calmly, he took the Dust rounds from his pocket and placed them on a nearby tree. Trying to remain as quiet as possible, he shifted Harbinger into gun mode. He took one of the Dust rounds, and loaded it into the chamber before priming the firing pin and taking aim.

Suddenly, the head of a raptor poked out of the foliage beside him with a hiss.

"Clever girl..." Qrow said before the raptor jumped on him. He tried to fight back, but it was too late. He screamed in pain as a snake slithered by the exposed head of the other raptor.

Jaune was busy performing CPR on the motionless Ruby, as Yang paced beside her, crying her eyes out.

'Ruby!" Jaune yelled as he filled Ruby's lungs with air. He compressed a few more times before he tried again. This time, Ruby coughed as he pulled back. She tried to catch her breath as Jaune cradled her head in his arms. "That's it! Good girl, good girl!"

"Three." Ruby said weakly, her breaths heavy and ragged. Yang, despite her worry and relief, chuckled.

Jaune kicked in the door to the visitor's center, carrying Ruby in his arms. Based on the light, he guessed it was some time after noon. They walked to the empty cafeteria where he placed Ruby on a table. "Alright, I need to find the others, and get you to a doctor. Yang, you'll look after Ruby?" he asked the older girl, who nodded rapidly "Hey! Your hair's all sticking up." He said, patting Ruby's head. "Big Ruby, the human piece of toast." He joked, earning a small grin from Ruby. He turned to leave, saying, "I'll be back soon. I promise." And with that, he made his way back outside.

Ruby got off the table and headed for the buffet, limping as she went. She stopped before an array of pies, cakes, and- most importantly- cookies. Despite the bandages on her hands, she grabbed the dessert knives and tried to find the best place to start.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called. He was on the lawn outside the visitor's center. He knew that if anyone would be able to survive this place, it was her. She may be a scientist, but she was still the four-time champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament, and the pride and joy of both Sanctum and Beacon Academies. She was an incredible fighter, and almost as good at tactics as he was. He turned and saw Pyrrha coming up the hill, red pink overshirt discarded so that she only had her blue undershirt.

She saw him and her relief nearly eclipsed her fear. Almost.

"Run." She said through gritted teeth, before breaking into a limping run herself. She threw herself at Jaune, who wrapped her into a tight hug. She reciprocated, going so far as to wrap her legs about his.


	13. 13 End

Yang and Ruby were busy engorging themselves on the buffet, unaware of the danger they were in. Yang was happily chowing down on a plate of fruit and veggies, with a side of Jell-O while Ruby was methodically working her was through cakes, pies, cookies and pudding.

Ruby smiled at her sister until she noticed Yang's expression; she was looking past Ruby and whatever she saw had shaken her to her core, physically and mentally.

Ruby turned around and saw the shadow of a raptor lining up with an image of itself. She quickly took Yang's hand and they ran for the kitchen. It was a large place, to be expected of a soon-to-be major theme park. There were rows of stainless-steel counters, ovens and several specialized appliances neither of the girls recognized. Yang quickly turned off all the lights before she and Ruby ran to the end of one row of counters and took shelter behind it.

The raptor walked down the hallway, it's toe claw clicking with each step, as it followed their scents down to the door of the kitchen. The tip of its nose could be seen through the small window in the door to the kitchen. Ruby poked her head out just enough to see the door and the window set in it. the raptor looked in with one eye and then fully faced the door, letting out a breath with a short cry. Scared, Ruby immediately withdrew her head back into cover, not knowing if the beast had seen her or not.

Back in the bunker, Jaune pulled a shotgun out of the locker where Qrow had kept Harbinger. He loaded it and chambered a round. He was never much of a marksman, usually preferring close-quarters fighting, where he and Pyrrha had made for an unbeatable team. Unfortunately, he and Pyrrha had left Crocea Mors and Milo and Akouo back in Vale, so he would make do with what he had.

"It's just the two raptors, right?" he looked over to Pyrrha, who was tending to Nora's wounds as best she could, "You're sure the third one's contained?"

"Yes. Unless they figure out how to open doors." She half-joked. They both knew from Qrow how intelligent these creatures were, so it was a definite possibility.

As if summoned by the mere thought of it, the handle on the kitchen door began wiggling, slightly at first, until it turned all the way, allowing the door to swing open slightly. All the raptor then had to do was use its head. Literally, in fact. It used the tip of its snout to push the door open and unintentionally lock open. It looked around, hissing, knowing its prey was in here somewhere.

"Ruby, what is it?" Yang whispered.

"It's a Velociraptor." She answered.

Growing frustrated, the raptor let out a series of 'poofing' noises before letting out a loud roar. Immediately, another raptor walked into the kitchen, accidentally nudging its companion. The first raptor apparently took offense at this and nipped its partner in the neck. The second raptor hissed at the first in pain, but ultimately submitted.

"Follow me." Yang whispered as she led Ruby a few rows down from the raptors, crawling to keep out of sight. After making it to the third row, they turned in and kept close to the counter. One of the raptors was in the next row over, so they tried to keep their movements as quiet as possible. The raptor next to them let out a noise, causing the sisters to immediately put their back to the near wall. Hearing the raptor continue on its way, they resumed their trek in the opposite direction of the raptor.

Suddenly, the raptor swept its tail over the counter top, causing pans and cooking utensils to spill over the sisters. Scared, they threw caution to the wind and crawled even faster, making it to the next row. Thankfully, their movements were covered by the crash of metal and plastic. Yang made it into the next row, but Ruby was not as lucky. She only made it as far as the end of the row before she was forced to press her back to a wall covered in cooking spoons when a raptor stuck its head under the counter. It looked around a bit and withdrew its head, and Ruby let out the breath she had been holding.

But luck is a heartless bitch, as proven by a soup ladle Ruby had jostled when it fell to the floor with a clang, drawing the attention of both raptors with a snarl.

Ruby and Yang moved again, as did the raptors, one of whom jumped up onto the countertop, gaining a vantage point. Yang made it to the end of the row they were currently on, while Ruby could only move into the row before pressing her back to the counter. Yang tried to get her to move, but Ruby adamantly refused. The raptors reached Ruby's previous position, one of them sniffing at and licking the ladle that had fallen in order to get her scent.

Before it could, however, Yang distracted them with a ladle of her own. She rapidly tapped it on the ground, gaining their undivided attention before she retreated into the oven that was behind her. All the raptor saw was her reflection as she tried to pull the oven closed, crying and screaming. Easy prey. Or so it thought. The beast charged her with a roar, teeth and claws bared. It lunged at Yang's reflection and bashed its head into the stainless steel, stunning it as Yang made her escape to the last row.

Hearing her sister's actions, Ruby was emboldened. She saw her chance in the form of the open freezer door. She looked back and, seeing that the remaining raptor wasn't looking, made a break for it. The raptor saw her and gave chase, using the counter-top in front of it to boost its initial charge. Gimp leg and all, Ruby ran as fast as she could, knowing that the animal was hot on her trail.

Upon entering the freezer, she faced her next challenge: stopping and making it out before her pursuer could recover. She solved the problem by grabbing one of the storage racks, spinning herself around out of the raptor's path. Unfortunately, it didn't completely work, and she fell on her chest. The raptor followed, but couldn't find purchase on the icy floor. As a result, it crashed into the rack in front of it, spilling several steaks of beef and fish. Ruby managed to find her footing and ran out of the freezer as the raptor got to its feet, jumping at her as she closed the door on it.

Yang ran to assist her sister, and, together, they trapped the beast in the freezer. As Ruby stepped to the side to catch her breath, Yang sealed the animal's fate by using a small metal pin to lock the freezer door closed. Letting out a small sigh of relief, she grabbed her sister and led her out of the kitchen.

Yang's raptor had recovered by this point and saw its prey running away, hissing with frustration.

When Yang and Ruby reached the cafeteria, they ran into the waiting arms of Jaune and Pyrrha, who happily scooped up Ruby in a hug.

"It's in there!" Yang said to Jaune.

"Control room." Pyrrha ordered, leading the way, Jaune keeping his gun trained on the entrance to the kitchen the entire time.

They entered the control room to see that all the lights and monitors were working fine.

"We can call for help?" Yang asked desperately.

"We have to reboot the system first." Pyrrha said, running to Mercury's terminal.

"The door locks!" Jaune said as he closed the door behind him, trying to figure out the automated door lock, "Pyrrha, boot up the door locks." He looked back up and saw the face of the raptor staring at him. It exhaled with a huff and looked down. Jaune followed it and noticed the door handle start to move. He grabbed it immediately, but the door was thrown open against him, causing him to drop his shotgun as he tried to hold it closed. Pyrrha saw this, and ran to help him, throwing herself on the ground next to him, her back to the door.

"Dammit, boot up the door locks!" Jaune yelled at Pyrrha as he struggled with the raptor.

"You can't hold it by yourself!" she yelled back as the raptor let out a shriek.

Ruby was jumping up and down in panic, while Yang simply turned around and calmly took a seat at Mercury's computer. She looked it over and was amazed.

"It's a UNIX system." She said as Ruby ran up behind her. "I know this. It has all the files of the whole park. It tells you everything. I gotta find the right file." She began typing furiously.

"Try to reach the gun." Jaune said to Pyrrha. He had put his own back against the wall, putting his full weight against the door. Pyrrha tried to slide her foot under the strap and pull it towards her but failed.

"I can't get it unless I move!" she cried.

"Semblance?"

"No good, I never touched it and I can't concentrate on it without slacking off on the door."

Yang had moved over to a Zoology section of the system when the raptor managed to get its fingers in the door. Jaune slammed it closed on them and the raptor screeched in pain. Not seeing what she was looking for, Yang moved over to Physical Security, thinking she would have better luck there.

"This might be it, this might be the right file," she said as she selected an icon that said 'Chemical'. "This isn't the right file." Ruby jumped anxiously behind her. The raptor pulled its finger back out of the door.

"C'mon, Yang!" Ruby said. The raptor stuck a hand back in.

Yang clicked on the Visitor's Center file and the screen changed to a schematic of the visitor's center. Several icons began popping up, all labeled 'Secured'. Jaune and Pyrrha managed to get the door fully closed just as the automatic lock slammed shut, allowing them a chance to breath. They walked over to the cheering kids, Pyrrha amazed that they had succeeded.

"What works?" Jaune asked.

"Phones, security systems. You name it, we got it!" Yang said. Jaune grabbed the phone and began dialing.

In the bunker, Ozpin was helping Nora with a blanket when the phone behind them began ringing. They looked at each other in surprise before Ozpin turned around and answered.

"Arc?" he said.

"Mr. Ozpin, the phones are working." Jaune said, gun in hand.

"Are the children alright?"

"The children are fine. Call the mainland, tell 'em to send the damn Bullheads." There was a breaking of glass behind him. The raptor had thrown itself at one of the tempered glass windows, breaking it, but not shattering it. It wouldn't take many more hits before the glass finally gave.

"It's gonna come through the glass!" Pyrrha yelled. Jaune dropped the phone and took aim with the shotgun. He fired off four rounds, audible on the other end of the line.

"Arc!" Ozpin screamed into the phone, but Jaune couldn't hear him. He had dropped the gun when it jammed after the fourth shot and grabbed a nearby ladder. He managed to get everyone into the ceiling and out of reach of the raptor just as the beast burst into the control room with a roar and a hail of shattered glass. Taking no chances, he used his heel to knock over the ladder, preventing any chance of them being followed.

Taking the lead, he saw a patch of light about ten feet ahead of him and headed towards it. The raptor looked up and saw the metal plates of the ceiling bending whenever someone put too much weight on them. The group was nearly to their exit when the raptor's head burst into the ceiling, directly under the panel Yang was on.

She screamed as she was lifted unsteadily into the air. Jaune turned and kicked the raptor in the face until it fell out of the ceiling, taking Yang with it. She hung onto the framework, her legs flailing mere feet above the fallen raptor, who quickly recovered and jumped for her. Thankfully Jaune and Pyrrha managed to pull her back up in time. Jaune hurried everyone into the ventilation system and led them to a metal grate right above the scaffolding in the main lobby. He exited first, followed by Ruby- who he helped down every step of the way- then Yang, with Pyrrha bringing up the rear.

They had reached the final piece of scaffolding when they heard the roar of a raptor off to their right. wasting no time, Jaune led the group onto the rickety Apatosaurus skeleton, Yang headed for the neck, Pyrrha the tail, while Ruby stayed with Jaune on the side of the torso farthest away from the raptor, which then leapt onto the skeleton, causing it to break apart.

Everything went even further south from there, if such a thing was even possible. Pyrrha fell from her section of skeleton when her weight became too much for the wires holding it up to bear, as did Yang, though she had a chance to jump down before the whole thing fell and so avoided being covered in debris. Ruby- at Jaune's behest- fell to the floor before the torso did and so was able to find a safe place to curl up as the rib cage came charging down at her, with Jaune and the raptor unwillingly coming along for the ride.

Pyrrha recovered before she heard a hooting sound come from behind a plastic tarp. Looking up, she saw a faint shadowy outline in the shape of a raptor, which was confirmed when the beast lifted the tarp with its snout.

Yang screamed as the first raptor came around the ruined skeleton with a roar. She scrambled to her feet and backed into Jaune and Ruby as the beast chased her. She almost ran into the other raptor, but Pyrrha grabbed her by the arm and shoved her behind herself.

And there the four of them stood; unarmed, injured, tired and caught between two of the most intelligent killing machines on the island. The other raptor slowly stepped towards them, each step bringing it into a pouncing pose. It bared its teeth and claws and leapt at them-

Only to be plucked out of the air by the jaws of the Tyrannosaur. The foursome looked up at their supremely unlikely savior as the Tyrannosaur viciously shook the raptor from side to side before slamming it on the ground, stone dead. The first raptor howled in fury before charging the Tyrant Lizard King, leaping onto its neck, causing it to roar in pain. As the Tyrannosaur chomped at the raptor, trying to get the nuisance off its neck, Jaune and the girls made a break for the front door.

As they reached the bottom of the steps, Ozpin pulled up in a gas jeep, Nora taking up the middle. As Pyrrha helped the kids into the car, Jaune vaulted the front passenger door.

"Mr. Ozpin," he said as he climbed in, "After careful consideration, I have decided NOT to endorse your park."

"So have I." Ozpin replied before peeling off towards the landing pad.

Back inside, the raptor was tearing away at the Rex's neck. The Rex shook one side of its body, causing the raptor to slip just enough for the Rex to grab it. The raptor struggled to free itself, so the Rex simply chomped down on it and threw it into the skeleton of its long-dead ancestor, killing it on impact. It turned and bellowed a mighty roar of victory as the 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth' banner fell to the floor.

The Bullhead was waiting for them at the landing pad. Pyrrha helped Yang into the aircraft, followed by Ruby, held by Ozpin. As Jaune helped Nora in, Ozpin turned and stared at his failed project, a brachiosaur crying out peacefully in the distance. It was such a grand idea, bold in how fundamentally simple it was.

'How then,' he thought, 'did it all go so wrong?'

Jaune walked up to him and moved to help him into the ship. Ozpin jumped at the contact, still anxious and fearful, but he calmed when he saw it was only Jaune. As the airship flew over the ocean towards Menagerie, Ozpin simply stared at the chunk of amber that topped his cane and reflected, while Nora slept quietly. Jaune wanted to do the same with Pyrrha, but he was rather preoccupied as Yang and Ruby had fallen fast asleep in his arms. He smiled at Pyrrha, she had been right about him and kids. He would be a good father, should that day ever come. Pyrrha, however, gave him a weak, tired smile and looked out at the crystal-clear water.

The Bullhead flew into the distance as the credits began to roll.


End file.
